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The Message of To-Morrow 



The 

Message of To-Morrow 

or 

The Gospel of Hope 

BY 

Rev. JOHN LLOYD LEE, D.D. 

PASTOR WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY 
AND AUTHOR OF 

" Shoxild I Join the Church ? " " Our Martyred President," Etc, 




NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
1901 



The library of 

CONGRESS, 
Two Curies fiecetvED 

NOV, 25 1901 

Copyright entry 
CLASS CV XXc. No. 
COPY J. 



Copyright igoi 

BY 

JOHN LLOYD LEE 
(September) 



TO MY WIFE, 

LILLIE DIETZ LEE, 

WHOSE CONSTANT HELPFULNESS HAS MADE 
THIS SERVICE POSSIBLE, 
THIS VOLUME IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY 
DEDICATED 



PREFACE 



Whoever lights a taper in the darkness helps 
to cheer the world. The kinds of illumination 
are legion, yet there is always room for one 
more light, and he who has it must let it shine, 
or answer for the stumbling of a brother. 

This is no attempt at throwing down the 
Golden Apples to stop a runner in his course, but 
rather a clearing of the way by which he may run 
the better. 

It is with this humble hope of helpfulness, 
and at the earnest request of many who have 
heard them, that these discourses are sent forth. 

That they may be even more helpful in this 
form than when preached recently in the West- 
minster Presbyterian Church, is the earnest 
prayer of the author. 

New York, August 12, 1901. 



CONTENTS 



i 

The Message of To-morrow. The Lost Pleiad — Na- 
thanael's vision — Menyana — The Only Undiscovered 
Country — Prophecy not Closed — Who the Prophets 
Are— Life's Plan— The Temple at Sogd— Man 
Reads His Own Prophecy First — Testimony — The 
Christian Power — The Acting Christ — The Parthe- 
non — Divine Architecture — Christian Purpose — 
Christ's Right — Christian Conscience — The Final 
Fact. St. John 1:50 11 

II 

The New Century and Its Mission. Fulfillments — 
Preparations — Commerce — Gifts of Money — The 
English Language — The Holy Spirit Rules — Uni- 
versal Principle — Oneness — Witnessing for Christ. 
Acts 1:8 34 

III 

The Program of Life. The New Year — The Broken 
Hearted— The Captives—" If I Were God "—Who 
are the Blind and How — How our Ancestors Trip 
us — Acceptable Time — An Echo Dome. St. Luke 
4 : 18, 19 46 

IV 

Labourers Together With God. A Saviour for Every 
Time of Need — Conformity to God's Plan — The 
Labourer's Law — How God Works Through Men — 
God's Building — Statue of Gen. R. E. Lee — " Com- 
plete in Him." 1 Corinthians 3:9. . . 60 

5 



6 



Contents 



v 

The Power of the Gospel. The Power of News — The 
Gospel — Pardon — The Tragedies of Life — Sin a 
Power — Saving Life — God's Reward for the Cost 
of Salvation — " Second Hand Building Material " 
— God's Temple — Belief that Wins — Certainty. Ro- 
mans i : 16 71 

VI 

The Rights of a Man Before the Face of the Most 
High. Before the Judge in Court — Man's Right to 
Live — Man's Right of Choice — The Appeal to Jus- 
tice — " If Ever God Weeps " — Justice not Beyond 
Prison and Scaffold — The Meaning of Mercy 
— The Spanish Army — Aguinaldo. Lamentations 
3:35 86 

VII 

The Secret of Happiness, or How to Keep Young. 
The Power of Youth— Making the Most of Life- 
How God is Pleased — What Life Does — Heart 
Cheer — Human Tests — Like the Feudal Castle — 
Learning to Walk — Keeping Ourselves Before our 
Eyes— The Mirror— The X Ray— The Settling of 
Accounts — Well Done. Ecclesiastes 11 : 9. . 100 

VIII 

The Power of an Endless Life. Eternity — Power — 
How Life is Revealed — Why We are Discouraged 
—St. Gothard's Tunnel— What Widens Life— What 
Makes us Old — Life's Rewards — Paid as We Go — 
After Their Kind. Hebrews 7:16. . . 11 1 

IX 

The Peace of God. Paul the Peace Warrior — How 
Spain found Peace — According to God's Nature — 



Contents 



7 



Passeth Understanding — A King in a Hovel — 
Military Guard — Walled Cities — Testing the Com- 
pass — The Captain's Face — The Careworn Mother. 
Philippians 4:7. 126 

X 

What All Should Do About the Gospel. The Lost 
Penny — Attention — The Stutterer and Long Dis- 
tance Talk — Never Disappointed — The Gospel Un- 
dervalued — The Kaiser and his Subject — The How 
of Things — The Great Cause. St. John 3 : 2. 138 

XI 

Life's Venture. The Carpenter as a Fisherman — 
Christ Launching out — Inventions — The Churches' 
Part — God's Answer to the Soul's Need — Queen 
Victoria — Faith as the Mustard Seed. St. Luke 
3:4 153 

XII 

The Christ Power. The New Vision— Our Defense— 
The King and the Seer — The Power that Must 
Work — Spiritual Gravity — Columbus and the " One 
Thing " — Certainty — The New Condition — The 
Fool and His Error — Does God Delight to Punish 
— The Look Above the Clouds. St. John 9 : 15. 167 

XIII 

The Crossbearer. Atlas — How the Cross of Christ 
was Heavy — How Christ Suffers — Growing Pains 
— Man Tries to Avoid Suffering. . . .180 

XIV 

God's Revelation of Good and Three Ways of Gain- 
ing It. Goodness not Manufactured — Three Kinds 
— Doing Justly — The Consumptive and his Cure — 



8 



Contents 



Loving Mercy — Sacrificing the Brain — The Presi- 
dent and the Pardon — Walking Humbly with God 
— The Alps — Sinai— Calvary. Micah 6:8. . 192 

XV 

God's Care. The Unwelcome Sparrow — Sale of the 
Sparrow Legal — A Storm at Manila — God Cares 
for a President — The Watchmaker and the Jewel 
—"One of Them"— Our Father. Matthew 10: 
29 203 

XVI 

A Bargain with God. Fleeing from Justice — The Bar- 
gain — Fortuna — Sovereign and Subject — God is in 
This Place — Knowledge — Linked with Divine Life 
—Do not Let Me Go Astray— The Pledge, a Gift- 
When Religion Helps. Genesis 28:20, 21. . 213 

XVII 

The Man of Faith. What Faith Does — Westminster 
Abbey — The Musical Instrument — Above Condi- 
tions — Fear — Danger — Obedience — Ruskin — The 
Future — Worship Blesses the World — The Decree 
of Destiny. Hebrews 11 : 1 225 

XVIII 

God so Loved the World. The Perfect Message — 
What It Is to All — Love so Great — What Salvation 
Cost God — How God Suffers — Helen Keller — God's 
Sympathy — Everlasting Life — The Image of God — 
What God Sees in Us— The Fable of the Monk- 
Like the Ship. St. John 3 : 16. . . . 237 

XIX 

The Great Ransom. Christ Came Willingly — Christ 
Touched by Suffering — The Southern Soldier — A 
Johnstown Flood Victim — The Young Missionary 



Contents 



9 



— The Doctor and the Leper — The Royal Physician 
—A King in a Hospital — Held for $25,000 Ran- 
som — Sold Twice — Ransom Sufficient. Matthew 
20 : 28. 252 

XX 

What Must I Do to be Saved? Conditions — Asleep — 
On the Railroad Track — The Great Need — The 
Prisoner — The Drunkard in the Meeting — At Ni- 
agara — The Prisoner at Toulon — " For the Baker's 
Sake " — Kindness Sows Its Own Seed. Acts 16 : 
30 266 

XXI 

Prayer and Providence — Do They Conflict? The 
Praying Soldier — Two Sides — The Love Side of 
God — The Tests — The Victory — The Sickly Mother 
— The World Managed by Prayer — The Praying 
Church Member — More than Conquerors. Daniel 
6 : 10 280 

XXII 

The Ever Present Christ. Darkness — Light — God 
Stands by all Things — The Catacombs and the 
Guide — The Fiery Furnace — Companionship with 
Christ—" Suffer Little Children "— " Cling Close to 
the Rock " — Inviting the Stranger in — His Infinite 
Love. St. Luke 24: 15 294 



The Message of To-Morrow 

or 

The Gospel of Hope 



" Ye shall see greater things than these." — St. John i:jo. 

We went from under an inky sky of night in 
old Virginia, into the summer home of a great 
sculptor, and saw in snow white marble the form 
of a beautiful maiden represented as resting upon 
a high mountain, and looking far into space. It 
was plain that this had come from some strange 
story; and on inquiry we were told this legend. 

Long ago seven beautiful sisters dwelt to- 
gether in supreme happiness in the sky. One 
day pursued by Orion one was separated from 
the rest and made to wander on alone. The six, 
closely followed by the enemy, were changed by 
Jupiter into stars and set forever in the heavens. 
The seventh, the lost Pleiad, for so she was, 
travelled from sea to sea, from land to land, and 
from clime to clime in search of her sisters, who 
all the while were keeping watch over her from 
above. Sad and disconsolate she went unknown 
among the nations of the earth, with no ray of 
ii 



12 The Message of To- Morrow 



hope shining above the horizon. No helping 
hand was offered her, and no word of sympathy 
came from any human being. Worn and weary 
she cast herself down on the highest mountain 
peak, and placing her hand beneath her head, she 
saw far up in the silent vault of heaven, her 
sisters in their shining beauty. Then she knew 
that not they, but she had been lost, and that if 
she had looked up at the beginning she would 
have been spared the seven long years of weary 
wandering. No sight in all her travels was half 
so welcome as that of her sisters whom she had 
just found. 

Like the lost Pleiad, Nathanael long looked 
for the light and guide of his life, who now 
stood before him with this great promise, " Ye 
shall see greater things than these." Unlike the 
lost Pleiad, who sought so long for those whom 
she loved, Nathanael was sought by the One 
whom he loved. 

We, with the thousands since that day, step 
for a moment into the tracks of wise Nathanael 
to hear what further revelations and see what 
further sights may be ours. Like the lost Pleiad 
and like this disciple, we see wondrous sights 
and then learn to our surprise that the story 
of Christ has just begun, and the divine picture is 
just unfolding. All the while the six watchful 
sisters were in the sky shedding light upon the 
wanderer's way. All the while the Christ of God 
has been our comfort and stay, but we may not 



The Gospel of Hope 



13 



have seen Him. Then there suddenly flashes be- 
fore us this vision of Christ and with it the 
promise, 

" Thou shalt see greater things than these." 

What then is the future to us? In the sunny 
south-land of this continent, where the Spanish 
language is spoken, the people have a way of 
asking when they meet, "Menyana?" What of 
to-morrow ? Thus they throw life into the future 
and make it the main period of time. So in this 
story of the Gospel, as yet largely untold, and 
which is developing little by little. It is the 
question " Menyana? " What of the future? And 
Christ stands ready with the declaration, " Ye 
shall see greater things than these." The same 
story of hope is written in the lines of that beauti- 
ful hymn, 

Watchman tell us of the night, 
What its signs of promise are, 

Traveller o'er yon mountain height, 
See that glory beaming star ! 

Watchman does its beauteous ray 
Aught of hope or joy foretell? 

Traveller, yes; it brings the day — 
Promised day of Israel. 

Man has gone round and round the world until 
he has discovered, and disposed of every conti- 
nent ; he has lassoed all the islands, and anchored 
them as resting places and coaling stations, in 
the highways of commerce. Man has made in- 



14 The Message of To-Morrow 

ventions up to the limit of the last device, as it 
would seem, and has disposed of all work. So 
he has apparently completed all the possibilities 
of outer life. 

Man himself, then, is the only undiscovered 
country of all the ages. The only incomplete 
task is this personal revelation, which is referred 
to in these words of Christ, and which He is 
pledged to fulfill wherever He is given the right. 

Then we find that: 

I. The future is for man. " Thou shalt." 

Man's life is largely unwritten. Much of it is 
being told now, but the greater part is stretching 
away yonder into the future of time and that 
eternity which is before us. 

But they say that prophecy is all closed; that 
Isaiah and Jeremiah and all the rest are dead, 
and that the curtain has been run down forever 
on the stage of the future. That is a lie. Christ 
stands before Nathanael and before the whole 
world and throws wide open the door of the 
future, when He says, " Thou shalt see greater 
things than these." No one is to think that he 
is beholding the final vision, though what he sees 
may be as sudden and sublime as the lightning 
flash, or as constant and secure as the never fail- 
ing sun. 

" Shall " is the language of hope, the message 
of to-morrow, the password which admits us to 



The Gospel of Hope 15 



the unfolding revelation. It is the great word 
of Christ who always calls us on to unmeasured 
possibilities. Hope is immortality walking 
among men whispering good cheer and showing 
great pictures of the future such as Bunyan saw 
in the life of the Christian Pilgrim, and such as 
John saw in the Revelation. It is the realization 
of man's highest expectations. 

Never was prophecy more abundant and never 
more open to the eye of every man than now. 
No man has ever overtaken the horizon before 
him in his swiftest flight, and never in all his 
journeys did he find a land where the sun did not 
pass him in its rapid journey. In the prophecies 
of the Old Testament the limit was placed at 
Bethlehem, Calvary, and the life of Christ. To 
to-day's prophecy no limit is set save with the 
gathering in of the last man to the household of 
Christian faith. For the world-wide prophecy of 
the present and the future is in the command of 
Christ when He said: 

" Go ye into all the world and preach the 
Gospel to every creature." 

That this may be done God has fully ordained 
all the necessary means. All that is in advance 
of man and that urges him on to the fulfillment 
of God's great designs is prophecy. Even natural 
causes contribute to the great designs of God as 
in the Old Testament prophecies. The sun has 
not yet returned in its course to undo the possi- 



1 6 The Message of To-Morrow 

bilities of its onward sweep, as it paints the sky 
with glory in the morning and in the evening, to 
show the beauty of its prophecy. 

History has not yet gone back to tear up its 
record, and it can not, for the facts have been 
written too deeply in the nature of man, as well 
as in rocks, in chasms, and in corrugated fields 
where glaciers have scored their story. So his- 
tory becomes prophecy as it shows how great man 
may yet become when he outdoes the past, for 
" Ye shall see greater things than these. " 

Every boy is a prophet in his way as really as 
Isaiah was in his. The boy of to-day has a future 
before him, vaster than that of any of the old 
prophets, and an audience far greater, and if he 
will only learn how to speak, he may fulfill even a 
greater mission. He has a future before him 
which calls to him like the echo from the hillside, 
saying, " Hi, O !, Come on, come on ! " 

Go there into the field and read in the blade 
of grass the prophecy of the harvest ; in the rose 
the story of an Eden yet to come; in the sun- 
shine the shadow of the glory of Heaven, and in 
the hope of the humblest, the story of a great 
immortality. 

But the greatest prophet of all is God Himself. 
He has placed Himself before every one as Christ 
stood before Nathanael. In God we are to see 
our greatest possibilities, for we are to be like 
Him when we see Him as He is. Look at Him 



The Gospel of Hope 



17 



there, He can not undo Himself or destroy Him- 
self or go back on anything He has said or done. 
He would not be God if He could. Man may 
ever look upon Him for the pattern of the life 
that will defy all the destructive powers of the 
future. A man may be measured for his future 
life as readily as for a suit of clothes. But re- 
member that it takes time and work, great and 
intense, to complete the life for the future as it 
takes stitch upon stitch to finish the garment. 

Here are our plans ; open them and see if they 
have been measured by the divine measure. Here 
is a plan for a mansion, fair and beautiful, with 
every detail marked, but this is to be built only 
of earthly material and will not last forever. 
Here are the parts of an invention great and 
good, and men are at work completing that which 
will be of use to man. But are these all the plans 
of life? Oh, no. Here is one for the future, for 
that unknown time which seems never to come. 
Open it and see what story it tells. But no — it 
is a blank page, discoloured by age, soiled by dust 
and stained by the chemistry of the air. What, 
no plan for that unknown time? Then hold up 
this blank page to the divine light till it takes 
upon it the outline of the Divine Nature, like unto 
Whom we are to grow, then set yourself to the 
task of filling it in, though with imperfect work, 
until all is finished, and you are all complete in 
Him. 



1 8 The Message of To-Morrow 

Yes God in Christ is the supreme prophecy of 
life, and our highest ambition is that we may 
fulfill all that great desire in regard to us. 

For this, God gives us time and strength. 
That is why to-morrow seems never to come. 
God kindly pushes the time along until we are 
ready to have the door to the unseen open be- 
for us. " When I was in Sogd," said an Arabian 
geographer, " I saw a great building like a palace, 
the gates of which were open and fastened back 
to the wall with large nails. I asked the reason 
and was told that the house had not been shut, 
night or day, for a hundred years. Strangers 
may present themselves at any hour, and in what- 
ever number; the master has amply provided for 
the reception of men and their animals, and is 
never happier than when they tarry for a time." 

This is a prophecy of the open revelation of 
God for us in the future where His great pro- 
vision is ample for everyone, and where He waits 
with the patience of His infinite nature. Go there 
and read that which you know speaks of Him in 
His providences, and learn by that, that you are 
near Him, as by the painted signs upon the fence 
and rocks along the way, you learn that you are 
near the city. 

It used to be said that 

" Coming events cast their shadows before," 
but now we must read it, 

" Coming events cast their headlight before," 
for man carries his own hope which lights the 



The Gospel of Hope 19 



way before him. Thus we read our history before 
it is written, and indeed before it is enacted, as the 
engineer reads the security or the danger of his 
own journey in the light from his own engine, 
even before it happens. So it is that we see 
our history of to-morrow and understand the 
message before the world sees it. God gives 
to every man the privilege of reading his own 
history first ; and he who lets the world look upon 
his life before he has scanned it, is a fool who can 
not read the message which God has put in his 
hand. 

You go into a photograph gallery, look into the 
camera and see no result. You do not grow im- 
patient, though some time goes by before there 
is anything to show for what you did. All this 
time the photographer is developing that which 
represents you. You know about what it will 
be. You are sure it will be like you. So you 
do not have the picture taken for the present time 
so much as for the future, for you know you 
are going to change. So we know about how we 
look before that God whose eye misses no defect 
and passes by no excellence. There seems at 
first to be no result but we are waiting patiently 
for we know that the great artist is bringing all 
to completion as fast as He can. Our life lies 
forward of to-day and we have prophecy enough 
to know about what it may be, for we shall see 
greater things than these. When He has finished, 
and we have been made after the fulfilled proph- 



20 



The Message of To-Morrow 



ecy, " we shall be like Him when we shall see 
Him as He is." 

Christ then is the greatest prophecy of every 
redeemed soul. Go look on Him and see how you 
will appear. Make certain of that shadowy un- 
known to-morrow, by placing all in the Almighty 
hand. He wastes no effort, He risks no time, He 
has made all this preparation for no vain purpose. 
He has waited for man to read this divine proph- 
ecy in the Son of God, that he may see greater 
things than these; as one of our poets has said, 

" Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll; 

Leave thy low vaulted part ! 

Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast 

Till thou at length art free, 

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." 

II. The revelation is for man. " Thou shalt 
see." 

We are then coming to an age of testimony. 
Not always will the religion of Christ be offered 
only in precept, but it is working forth into the 
practices of the world. 

The trouble with the lost Pleiad was not that 
her sisters were not in full view, but that she 
did not look up. The trouble with Nathanael 
was not that Christ had not been before him, for 
He had been in full view in the prophecies of the 
Old Testament, but that he did not see Him. The 



The Gospel of Hope 21 



trouble with unbelievers to-day is not that they 
do not have enough proof, but that they have 
not given it attention. 

Now the coming days of this century are going 
to be times of conviction and belief. Science has 
brought her proofs and laid them down on the 
study table of man and they read, 

" 1 have not one word of opposition or con- 
tradiction in the case of Christianity, but only 
proof that it is true." 

Reason is summoned and says, 

" I have hunted far and wide for the causes of 
this strange phenomenon called Christianity and 
I find nothing inconsistent, but rather that all 
is in harmony with eternal truth." 

Discovery comes forward and testifies, 

" I have been busy these years hunting amid 
ruins of temple and field for something about this 
great cause. I have found much in different 
places all over the world, and every word con- 
firms this divine record." 

There comes also the great melody of song 
that cheers the tired world, that calms the trou- 
bled heart of the bereaved, that goes up every- 
where as a great chorus on Sabbath day to honour 
God, that finds its expression in the great Ora- 
torios of the Creation, the Elijah, the Redeemer 
and the Messiah, and testifies, 

" Without Christianity we would never have 
been born and in our place would have come the 
cry of woe and despair." 



ii The Message of To-Morrow 

Even dry, stale, severe Mathematics adds its 
testimony in these words, 

" I have measured and computed all things 
and find that the God of signs and angles and 
circles and distance and space, and who has made 
no mistake in any of these, is also the infallible 
God of all the future." 

But the greatest of all the testimonies by which 
man shall see greater things than came before 
Nathanael, are in human experience. God has 
opened enough of the world's history to prove to 
us all He has ever said. The laws which He 
gave to Moses have governed the world ever since 
Israel was encamped at Sinai. They have worked 
themselves into all the manners and customs of 
every civilized nation, and never can be changed. 
The cry of old David for pardon and for an inti- 
mate life with God, finds a responsive chord in 
every human heart, so that the Psalms of the Old 
Testament will be remembered as long as human 
hearts beat. The logic of Paul, which was too 
much for the keen Rabbi, which silenced the wise 
Athenian, which outdid the rich Corinthian, and 
brought the whole world with bowed head to 
acknowledge the power and supremacy of the 
Nazarene, — will that ever be forgotten? No? 
Then the testimony of the Gospel of Christ is 
sufficient and there is no reason why man should 
not see with open eyes, the eternal vision which 
governs the world. 

For eighteen hundred years man has travelled 



The Gospel of Hope 



*3 



along this divine path and it is going to take 
something very unusual to turn him aside. So 
well has God made all preparation for man's 
future, that if a man will but look, he must see 
the way of life. The lost Pleiad needed only to 
look up to see the desire of her heart. Nathanael 
needed only to look up to see the Christ, and then 
onward to see the bright future that would come 
to all who would trust the Lord. 

God is piling up human testimony which will 
answer the objection of every infidel, and it is 
being done in the most human way. For instance 
in a. d. 1600 the Christian power of the world 
controlled 7 per cent, of the surface of the earth, 
and in 1893, 82 per cent. During the same time 
ithe non-Christian nations decreased in power 
from 93 per cent, to 18 per cent. At the present 
time the Protestant nations alone rule about twice 
as much territory as all the non-Christian nations 
combined. Surely this is the power of Moses and 
Isaiah, and David and Paul and ten thousand 
others, and is not without its mission. How won- 
derfully God has made ready for man's great 
future. In the light of this, any one who will 
not see as Christ told Nathanael he should, must 
henceforth be regarded as a natural fool and must 
be rejected as a note that is out of date. But he 
who will enter the future, that unknown and 
uncertain to-morrow, with eyes turned to Him 
who alone can mark out the life that is to last 
forever, as the Pleiad looked to the sky, and as 



24 The Message of To-Morrow 



Nathanael looked at Christ, will see that all the 
ages have been preparing the way for Him to 
enter into the eternal inheritance, and shall see 
as Christ said, heaven open and the angels of 
God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
Man ; so each may say in the sublime words of 
the poet Whitman, 

" Immense have been the preparations for me. 

Faithful and friendly the arms that have helped me. 

Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheer- 
ful boatmen, 

For room to me stars kept in their own rings, 

They sent influences to look after what was to hold me. 

All forces have been steadily employed to complete and 
delight me." 

III. The triumph is for man. " Thou shalt 
see greater things than these." 

Is that possible? There stood the Christ of 
God before Nathanael, and was He not the great- 
est sight of all? Yes, but remember that Christ 
had not yet begun His great work. As He stood 
there He was great, but how much greater when 
He was active, enthusing all things with His pres- 
ence, moving all things by His power, touching 
and changing all history with His magic wand. 

But what are the greater things which we shall 
see? If you will read the next verse you will 
see, that Christ tells what is the greater vision 
for He says in explanation, 

" Ye shall see heaven open and the angels as- 
cending and descending upon the Son of Man." 



The Gospel of Hope 



At once our minds run back to the story of 
Jacob's dream when he saw the ladder let 
down from heaven, and saw the angels ascend- 
ing and descending. In Jacob was the hope 
of the Jewish race. In Christ was the hope 
of the whole world. The mission of Christ then 
is specially to bring back the exile to the blessed 
home. Jacob should not always stay in the for- 
eign land, and while there he has the divine help. 
So while we are in this sinful world we have the 
divine help to strengthen and sustain. 

It is then the recovery of man that is to so 
interest the world and to even surprise the angels, 
for we are told that the angels desired to look 
into these things. " Because I said, I saw thee 
under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt 
see greater things than these." 

The wonder of future ages then is man him- 
self. In all machinery produced there must be a 
hand to guide and keep it in order. And here 
man shows his skill. Man walks the earth like 
a giant. Nations rock and tremble under the tread 
of one man. Banking institutions rest for their 
security on the shoulders of some careless finan- 
cier, who by once stumbling, may send all crash- 
ing into ruin. This country may be in the throes 
of poverty only because one man is elected to the 
Presidency, and again may revel in almost 
mad prosperity because another man is elected 
to the same office. The world depends abso- 
lutely upon personality, and so does God; for 



Q.6 The Message of To-Morrow 

this is the lesson given to Nathanael in the 
life and words of Christ. The Saviour cared but 
little for institutions and customs, but spent His 
time reaching individuals. He was ever seeking 
the listening ear of the poor and the needy and 
the helpless, and the sick, that He might save 
and keep them. Yes the great future of the 
world rests on the individual and that is the rea- 
son why the salvation of Christ is personal. It 
is also the reason why Christ is so patient in work- 
ing out the salvation of men. So much depends 
upon this in all the future that God can afford 
to be patient. 

In the light of all this the greatest thing that 
Nathanael or any one else will ever behold is 
the salvation of the soul from a condition of sin 
to a condition of righteousness in Christ. The 
world will ever look upon this with surprise. 
Greater than material changes, greater than all 
inventions and discoveries, greater than all acts 
in human history, it will ever remain the unchang- 
ing message of to-day and to-morrow to a needy, 
helpless but not hopeless world. 

They are just now talking of restoring the 
Parthenon at Athens, that temple of marvellous 
beauty of the days of Phidias. But they can not 
do it. A part of it is in the British Museum in 
London, a part is in Paris, and parts are, who 
knows where? At the mere suggestion that this 
old ruin be restored a laugh went up from Lon- 
don, Paris and other places, meaning that the 



The Gospel of Hope 27 

parts of this temple kept in these cities would 
not be given up. And if they were surrendered 
who would fit them together again as they once 
were, for Phidias is dead and so are the other 
great men of Greece of that period? No, the 
Parthenon can never be restored. 

But here stands an Architect of the human soul 
who promises complete restoration. Your life 
has been pillaged by evil forces. A part is in one 
museum of the evil one, a part in another; but 
Christ, greater than Phidias or Michael Angelo 
or any human architect or sculptor, brings back 
the wanting parts and says, 

" Do you think you were great before you 
were despoiled? You shall see greater things 
than these, and be greater in your redeemed 
life." 

We are more perfect than any temple because 
we are " Complete in Him." 

One of the greater things of the restored life 
is the unchanging Christian purpose. 

When Warren Hastings was nine years old his 
father lost his estate. Just before the family were 
to leave, young Warren went out by the little 
stream and lay down on the grass and said, 

" I can and will make the money to reclaim 
this estate." 

He lay down there as a boy; he rose up as a 
man because a great purpose had taken hold of 
him. Forty years later he went to that same spot 
and carried in his hand the newly secured deed of 



28 The Message of To- Morrow 

the estate. It was a noble purpose and yet not 
so great as the one to which the text refers. 

Henry Wilson, once Vice-President of the 
United States, when a boy was very poor. He 
was in a shoe shop in his little town, learning 
the business of shoe making, and begging for 
work from place to place. His father was a hope- 
less, helpless drunkard and so low and lost that 
the son asked the legislature to change his name 
that he might be free from his father's curse. 
Look at him there later in life, holding the sec- 
ond highest office in the gift of the nation. Men 
wondered at this so much that when he died 
they weighed his brain, thinking that there must 
be something in his physical make up to give 
him such power. But it was found that his brain 
was slightly under the average. Then they had 
to acknowledge what he had long told them, that 
it was his great Christian purpose that had given 
him such success. Ah yes, the immortal purpose 
of the Christian will never change save to give 
larger and greater opportunities as Christ prom- 
ised Nathanael, when He said, 

" Thou shalt see greater things than these." 

Another greater power of the restored life and 
which we shall see, is a true conviction of Christ's 
right in our hearts and in the world. There is 
no political party that would dare to put forth 
an infidel for President of the United States. The 
people of this country would consider it an in- 
sult. How would it look for such a one to take 



The Gospel of Hope 29 



an oath before a God in whom he does not be- 
lieve and swear upon a Bible which he considers 
merely human ? Even the infidels would not want 
one of their own number for President, which 
shows that this spark of hope has not yet left 
the breast of the unbeliever. There is a convic- 
tion that the Christian religion is true, even 
among the careless, as was shown in a political 
meeting a little time ago when men broke out 
in applause at the mention of the name of Christ. 
Even the indifferent wish their children to go 
to the Sabbath School and to Church, obeying 
the conviction of immortal hope which approves 
of Christ. 

Christian Conscience is another greater power 
arising from the restored life. The accuracy of 
no material force can equal the accuracy of the 
working of conscience. The persistency of no 
machine (unless it be the political machine) can 
equal the relentless persistency of conscience. It 
is one of the greatest sights possible to see the 
world ruled by the unseen force of the Christian 
Conscience. Not long ago a terrible massacre 
in Turkey was put down, men hardly knew how, 
yet it is easy to understand. The Christian Con- 
science, the tribunal before which Kings and Em- 
perors and Presidents must bow, had called the 
Turkish nation to Judgment, and there was no 
escape. 

A few days ago ten thousand men gathered in 
one place in Philadelphia to protest with all their 



30 The Message of To-Morrow 

mights against what they believed to be corrup- 
tion in their city politics. This was the expression 
of their outraged consciences. No one can any- 
where long stand against ten thousand men, who 
have good lungs, strong voices and justice in their 
souls. These men will have their way, for God 
has so decreed, and the message that greets us 
at the open door of to-morrow, is that Christian 
conscience is supreme. What a sight it is to 
see the redeemed and recovered life holding sway 
over the whole world. That is what Christ in- 
tends shall be done, when He said, 

" Ye shall see greater things than these." 

God Has not made a crown of gold and of 
emeralds and of diamonds and placed it away 
there and said, 

" You must come along such and such an 
earthly lineage, before you can rule," but He has 
made an everlasting crown for everyone no matter 
who he is, who is willing to come along the line- 
age of Christ by being born into His kingdom. 
And he who comes in this way has power and 
right to rule for he holds in his hand the sceptre 
of the world. He may even push aside and de- 
throne kings if need be. Indeed this has been 
done over and over in the history of the world. 
A mere boy by the name of Joseph took the place 
of a king in Egypt and managed the kingdom. 
A young man, a foreigner and slave, by the name 
of Daniel, took the reins of government out of the 
hands of old Darius, and the king was glad to let 



The Gospel of Hope 31 

the young slave manage all, for he did it so 
well. 

It was an interlinking of the best human agency 
and the great divine wisdom that brought a rail 
splitter from an obscure part of this land and 
made him President of the United States forty 
years ago that the country might be safely led 
through a great rebellion. So in all the humbler 
walks of life, hope, fair beautiful hope, shines 
before every one a beacon light of God ; for " Ye 
shall see greater things than these," is spoken 
to the lowly, the needy and the helpless because 
from these and all other conditions you may rise 
to be kings and priests unto God. 

The final vision that shall greet our eyes, and 
of which Christ speaks here is that blessed time 
when heaven and earth shall have joined hands 
in the great triumph of the kingdom of Christ 
when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall 
confess that He is Lord to the glory of God. This 
will be the time when the " Angels shall ascend 
and descend upon the Son of Man." The time 
shall not be an incident as in the life of Jacob, 
but shall be a condition, one that will mark for- 
ever the triumph of the King of Kings and Lord 
of Lords. It shall then be popular to be a fol- 
lower of the Christ of God. As in the few days 
of popularity in His life in Palestine, so all the 
time, will men ascribe their praise, and acclaim 
Halleluiahs ! This is no mere vision. It will be a 
fact definite and constant in the life of the Chris- 



32 The Message of To-Morrow 

tian Church. The time seems long and the process 
slow because the recovery of the lost is made one 
by one until that great time has come. Lift up 
your eyes to the sky to see what the morrow shall 
bring forth. 

Bid glad welcome to to-morrow, since it brings 
only the good news of possible growth and en- 
largement of life, which has been touched by the 
finger of God. 

Remember that the great time of Christ is to be 
hastened by the attitude and effort of every one, 
and that the message of to-morrow is the message 
of hope and recovery of life for " thou shalt see 
greater things than these." 

" An ivy in a dungeon grew, 
Uncheered by rain, unfed by dew; 
Its pallid leaflets only drank, 
Cave moistures foul and odours dank. 

But through the dungeon grating high, 
There fell a sunbeam from the sky; 
It slept upon the grating floor, 
In silent gladness evermore. 

The ivy felt a tremor shoot, 
Through every fibre to the root; 
It felt the light, it saw the ray, 
It strove to blossom into day. 

It grew, it crept, it pushed, it clome, — 
Long had the darkness been its home; 
But well it knew though veiled in night, 
The beauty and the joy of light. 



The Gospel of Hope 



33 



It reached the beam, — it thrilled, it curled, 
It blessed the warmth that cheers the world, 
It rose above the dungeon bars, 
It looked upon the sun and stars. 

It felt the life of bursting spring, 
It heard the happy skylark sing; 
It caught the breath of morns and eves, 
And wooed the swallows to its leaves. 

By rain and dew and sunshine fed, 
Over the outer wall it spread; 
And in the day-beam waving free, 
It grew into a steadfast tree. 

Would you know the moral of this rhyme? 
Behold the light of Christ and climb. 
To the soul's dungeon comes this ray 
Of Christ the light, the life, the way." 



II 



THE NEW CENTURY AND ITS MISSION 

" Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, 
. . . unto the uttermost parts of the earth." — Acts 
z:8. 

The parting of the centuries was at the day 
of Pentecost. All before that was old, staid and 
formal; all since has been bright, new and spir- 
itual. About that time the world's calendar was 
destroyed, and the Christian calendar, which con- 
forms to God's plan was begun. The events in 
the life of Christ were in fulfillment of the Old 
Testament demands, and of the necessary condi- 
tions of the Christian Church. 

A little band of three hundred men, under 
Gideon, turned heathenism aside from further at- 
tacks, for the time, on the developing Jewish race. 
Three hundred men at Thermopylae, under 
Leonidas, turned the tide of the old world back 
upon itself, and made to flow in its place the 
strong current of new civilization to all the world. 

But here are fewer, only one hundred and 
twenty, who stood against the whole world. Yet 
these men were supreme, because they had on 
their side Him who had said, 
34 



The New Century and Its Mission 35 

" All power is given unto Me both in heaven 
and in earth ; " and, " Ye shall receive power 
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." 

We have come to the time when fulfillments 
are to be the order of the day. Shall we find the 
countless secrets of manufactory and of inven- 
tion, of art, of science, of steam and electricity, 
and not find the secrets in the moral and the 
spiritual world? By no means. To uncover the 
one is to uncover the other. So the impetus that 
the world is gaining in the great forward move- 
ment, is bound to carry us to greater develop- 
ments of higher life. There is therefore a gen- 
eral belief that we have come to a great era in 
the history of the world. 

I. The preparation for the exercise of God's 

POWER HAS BEEN AMPLE. 

Christ said, " Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, 
until ye be endued with power." If the Church 
has been waiting until the time is ripe, she surely 
need wait no longer. All is in swift preparation. 
The speculator is enlarging his plans, the scholar 
is adding to his library, the manufacturer is im- 
proving his machinery, the Churches are pushing 
on into heathen lands on all sides of the world, 
and the historian is sharpening his pencil, to make 
the record of greater worldwide achievements. 

Commerce flies with swifter wing than ever 
before, and dares to enter every port in all the 



36 The Message of To-Morrow 

rivers and seas. Inventions have multiplied until 
man is hardly needed for the work of the world, 
except to direct and control, organized mechani- 
cal power. A high official in the Patent office 
at Washington, said a short time ago that he 
had long since ceased to be surprised at anything 
invented, that he believed everything except a 
flying machine would be produced, and that he 
had little doubt that this exception would soon 
be eliminated. 

Furthermore a great preparation for the ad- 
vance movement of the Christian Church, is to 
be found in the unusual benevolence of recent 
years. It requires money to carry on any great 
work, and especially is this true of the evangeli- 
zation of the world. To answer this need God 
has led to a season of great benevolence on the 
part of many. During last year the gifts of' some 
of the rich have aggregated $62,461,304, of which 
nearly $35,000,000, or considerably more than 
one-half, went to universities, colleges and other 
educational institutions. Of the remaining $27,- 
000,000 a little more than a half went to charities, 
while nearly $9,000,000 was given to churches. 
The balance of $5,000,000 was divided about 
evenly between museums, art galleries and li- 
braries. 

Then it must be remembered that the benevo- 
lence of the great host of men and women who 
give from moderate and small fortunes, and from 



The New Century and Its Mission 37 



modest annual incomes that are earned by daily 
industry, is far greater relatively than the benevo- 
lence of the very rich. 

Can any one doubt the meaning of such a 
preparation for the sway of God's power? 

But the most remarkable preparation for the 
coming of the Spirit in power is the spread of 
the English language. There seems to be neces- 
sary some particular language which shall carry 
the truth of God to all men ; and the English lan- 
guage is the one. Not only has it become com- 
mon to tell the vast number of Bibles printed in 
the English, (more than in any other two lan- 
guages), but also that the books which have had 
the widest sale of any publications in modern 
times, have been in the English and upon subjects 
which take hold of the eternal verities of the 
Christian faith, " Ben Hur," " Titus, a Companion 
of the Cross," " In His Steps," "The Master 
Christian," and others may be named. Take this 
together with the fact that the English speaking 
people are fast getting control of the whole world 
and you can easily see the Providence working in 
events. All nations now are forced to learn the 
English language. Great Britain has acquired 
territory in almost every part of the earth, and 
America has followed with the Gospel to make 
the Christian life, and the English language se- 
cure. In America, every man from any other 
shore is compelled to learn the English language, 
if he would do business and live happily. And 



38 The Message of To-Morrow 

yet no one is forced in this land to learn any- 
other than the mother tongue. 

When the great missionary Carey began his 
career about a century ago, only about 22,000,000 
could speak the English language or about 1 
in every 67 of the people on the whole earth, and 
1 in every 7 of the people in Europe. At the 
present time about 120,000,000 use the English 
or about 1 in every 12 of the people of the whole 
earth and 1 in every 4 of all the people of Europe. 
The meaning of all this is clear when we re- 
member that the English language is the great 
missionary language of the world. God has not 
been inactive while his church has been " tarry- 
ing at Jerusalem " in these modern days. 

What an outlook then for the opening of the 
twentieth century! Surely we who stand in the 
presence of all this marvellous development owe 
the world a great service. All seems ready now 
for a forward movement. Even the heart hunger 
of the church which is to make us fully ready for 
the great events in the twentieth century, has ap- 
peared, for the year books of some of the churches 
for 1900 show disappointments. One great de- 
nomination with over 7,000 churches, records 
1,500 churches which have not reported a single 
conversion. Another denomination, which has 
over 8,000 churches, reports 2,000 churches with- 
out a single conversion. 

Our cities all show the great need of a nobler 
and better Christian faith. Decayed city govern- 



The New Century and Its Mission 39 

ments curse the best spots on earth, and men of 
high and noble purpose are crying out for some 
kind of relief. Not only is there then the ex- 
ternal preparation for a great revival, but the 
crying need, which will stir alike the heart of 
God and man. 

With these things we face the opening century 
expectantly. We have long " tarried at the city 
of Jerusalem." We are now feverish for the full 
out-pouring of the power of the Holy Spirit. 
Not at the day of Pentecost was there larger hope 
and greater desire toward the future than now. 
Never has the whole world been so moved with 
longing for great results. Never has there been 
such organization for advance movement as is 
now found in the Christian Church. Never was 
the world so anxious for the dawn of Christian 
glory. So true is this that Mr. Moody said, as 
one of his last utterances, that we are on the eve 
of the greatest revival the world has ever known. 

How then is this to be brought about? The 
answer is found in the text, 

II. " After that the Holy Ghost is come 

UPON YOU." 

Divine power through the Holy Spirit is to 
rule the world. Why should this be thought 
strange? Why may we not expect marvellous 
developments in the Christian life? God has 
more than a passing interest in this world, else 
He would never have sent His Son to die for us. 



40 The Message of To-Morrow 

God has never thought worth while to instruct 
mankind on the great subjects of mechanics or 
chemistry or astronomy. Man has had to find 
these things for himself. But on moral and 
spiritual subjects, He has been most exact in His 
revelations. Long ago He sent angelic messen- 
gers to reveal His will, and after that He wrote 
His word to remain forever, His letter of instruc- 
tion to all the human race. There is no meaning 
in all that has happened in the last five hundred, 
yes in the last eighteen hundred years if there 
be no revival of God's power and God's grace 
near at hand. Time has been given by the great 
God for the trial of everything which man might 
regard as a substitute for the power of the Holy 
Spirit. Education, science, reason, morality, and 
all the rest have entered the arena of contest, and 
sin has met and vanquished every one of them. 
So the world to-day needs this very power of 
God. It is not to come with great sound of the 
trumpet, conflicting with every plan and purpose 
of man, but is to enter into the very life of man 
quietly and there rule in power. 

Little do we think that the sunshine rules us: 
and yet it does. We rise at its coming, we work 
in its light, we lie down and close our eyes to 
rest in its absence. The sunshine gives us power 
of muscle, light for the eye, and food for the 
body. It enters into every part of our nature. 
We would die without it. Sunshine therefore 
rules us, and we are its willing subjects. 



The New Century and Its Mission 41 



In this mysterious way, yet more really God 
enters with power into our lives in the person of 
the Holy Spirit to give us strength in ourselves, 
as we have power in Him. 

The presence of the Holy Spirit will bring to 
us a universal principle which is to rule the world, 
and sometime in this opening century men will 
learn to think alike in regard to God's presence 
in the world. 

It is not so long ago that all commerce was car- 
ried on in a haphazard way. Each sailor man- 
aged his ship as he chose, regardless of how his 
neighbour sailed his. Then men found the provi- 
dence of God in sea and sky, and all began to sail 
by the tides of the great deep, and by the winds 
of heavens. And now there is but one doctrine 
of navigation, and by it all men sail. The pilot 
who goes but a little way out to sea, and the cap- 
tain of the tug, who never leaves the river and 
harbour, as well as he who runs a great ocean 
steamer, consult the report of what the winds 
and the tides may do on each day. In like 
manner it is not so long since all men followed 
the leadership of churches independent, one of 
another. Denominations numerous and different 
used to build their lines of division high, as 
though to keep one another out. Doctrinal dif- 
ferences were as varied as the names of the de- 
nominations. Fierce persecutions and the bitter- 
est hatreds rose over interpretations of the Word 
of God. Wars growing out of religious differ- 



42 The Message of To-Morrow 

ences and disputes became the common events of 
some time ago. But thank God all these differ- 
ences are being swept away. 

The Methodist neighbours with the Presbyter- 
ian and the Congregational with the Baptist. In 
many places about the only way you can tell what 
kind of a church you are entering is by the name 
on the board outside. This is the oneness of God's 
people which will give the Holy Spirit chance to 
work. It is as is said in the first verse of the 
second chapter of Acts, 

" They were all with one accord in one place," 
then there came the outpouring of the Holy 
Spirit. Oneness of purpose and of life is neces- 
sary before the Holy Spirit of God shall have 
time and opportunity to work mightily in the 
world. It is to be an electrified world, all around 
us. It comes nearly being that now, for electric- 
ity is used in hundreds of ways. Insulation is 
being more and more removed so that the world 
may be filled and moved and swayed, by this mys- 
terious, yet universal power. 

So the world is coming to be run more and 
more by the great power of God. He is enter- 
ing into all life. The insulation is being re- 
moved, and the world is to be fully held and 
moved and swayed by the power of God. 

When we are all with one accord in one place, 
this time will come. 

This nation had hard work to perform its duty 



The New Century and Its Mission 43 



in 1862 when the land was divided by the seces- 
sion of some of the states. How could the Gov- 
ernment perform its function to the South, and 
give blessings to all? It could not. It was only 
after a long and painful experience that the whole 
nation was again brought together to be as it 
was formerly, " the land of the free and the home 
of the brave." The legend, 

" E pluribus unum," 

tells the simple story of a great land of power. 
There have been division after division of God's 
great kingdom, and how then could the thrill of 
one great Holy Spirit of God go pulsing through 
the land. Man knows, as well as does God, that 
division and separation, mean destruction and 
death; and that union in purpose and practise 
bring the greatest possible blessings. It is not 
that the individual only shall be in harmony with 
God, so that the Holy Spirit may establish the 
great kingdom, but the whole world shall be at 
one with God's great plan of redemption. There 
is but one Bible given of God because there is to 
be a oneness and not a division of knowledge and 
wisdom. There is but one Saviour, because there 
is to be a oneness and not a division of methods 
of saving grace. There is but one Holy Spirit 
because there is to be one teaching of the great 
power of God, for the Holy Spirit is the teacher. 
There is to be but one heaven, to bring to us a 



44 The Message of To-Morrow 



uniformity of rewards and a union of happy 
hearts in the home of the redeemed. 

And when the world — the Christian world — 
learns that a union of purpose and practise shall 
bring the Holy Spirit in power, then all will be 
electrified with the universal power of God which 
we shall receive " after that the Holy Spirit is 
come upon us." May this glad time come early 
in this twentieth century! 

III. Witnessing is the third great fact of 

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 

" And ye shall be witnesses unto Me." 

So large a case was never before called before a 
tribunal. It concerns the whole human race as 
well as every individual. Every one is to be both 
witness and juryman. The great Word and cause 
of the Almighty is to be established. The very 
angels must hold their breath in surprise at the 
way some testify, for not all the witnesses are 
sworn to tell the truth, because the Judge knows 
all will not tell it anyhow. Each one takes the 
oath or refuses as he please. Each shows little 
or much interest according as he loves the great 
cause now on trial. 

Thank God we are learning the value of truth- 
ful testimony. We, in this land have taken a 
stand which puts us far beyond the possibility 
of false testimony. We are lifted up before the 
eye of the whole world, and there is written across 
our sky, in the plain view of all, like the 



The New Century and Its Mission 45 



" In hoc signo vinces " 
of Constantine, that talisman of world conquest, 
" Christian " ; 

for we are known as the great Christian nation. 

The world is to be brought to Christ through 
the witness bearing of His followers. To aid in 
this, God has added every possible facility. He 
has given the wealth of the world, into the hands 
of Christian people. Discoveries, inventions and 
the use of mechanical power has brought the 
great Christian countries to the front, and has 
made them the forerunners of the Gospel in the 
heathen lands. And above all, there are the sacri- 
ficing missionaries who go as the witnesses to the 
great cause which is to rule the world. 

The greatest cause of the universe is called and 
must be proved, and " ye are witnesses unto the 
uttermost parts of the earth." 

Give righteous testimony and then take your 
place with those of immortal fame, and thus ful- 
fill the highest mission in the new century. 

" Hand in hand with the angels, 

Blessed so to be, 
Helped of all the helpers, 

Giving light they see; 
He that aids another, 

Strengthens more than one 
Sinking earth he bindeth, 

To the great white throne." 



Ill 



THE PROGRAM OF LIFE 

" He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to 
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight 
to the blind, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 
Luke 4: 18, 19. 

Every thoughtful person has his program of 
action for the day, for the year, and for the un- 
known future. To him life is a continual per- 
formance in which he is both manager and chief 
actor, with all others grouped around him as 
helpers. To know a man's future is to know 
the man. 

The greatest example of this is Christ, who in 
this text gives His program of His earthly career. 
He seized upon several great facts in human life, 
such as the aching heart, the bondage of sin, the 
blindness that comes from an evil life, and tells 
of His power to change all into the great glad 
jubilee of God. It is a life picture selected from 
the gallery of Isaiah, where there was repre- 
sented the most that was left to Israel after their 
wars and persecutions and captivities, as the most 
that is left after the scourging wars of Napoleon 
and about him is to be found in the picture gal- 
leries which immortalize his name. 

46 



The Program of Life 47 



So Christ stood before His earthly life with 
definite aim and perfect plan. 

To-day we stand before our future, the new 
year, the new century, the new life, and arrange 
our program, for we too are immortal. This 
may best be done by catching the spirit of Him 
whose purpose never changed and whose plan 
never failed. He it is who teaches us that the 
future is not altogether an unknown country, for 
He has passed through it. As Israel of old wait- 
ing on the border of the promised land, sent spies 
to view the country, and received favourable re- 
ports from but two; so we send our hopes, our 
longings, our aims, and our faith to spy out the 
year; and though but few report favourably, we 
go forward sure of victory for we are entering 
the promised land. We are facing westward in 
these days of swift progress, and as the sun rises 
in the East we see in the X ray shadow of our- 
selves before us, the dim outline of our lives ac- 
cording to the divine plan. Longfellow expresses 
it in these words, 

" Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not 
back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. 
Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear, and 
with a manly heart." 

From to-day you will have but little interest in 
the year 1900, unless on account of some unpaid 
bills and unsettled obligations. You have little 
interest in 1899, less in 1898, and so on back to 



48 The Message of To-Morrow 

childhood. Most of the past is to be forgotten. 
You would not repeat those years in the same 
way if you could; at least the future will fully 
engage your time and attention. The better, the 
nobler, the larger our lives, the more do we owe 
to others. Paul was not " debtor to the Greek 
and to the Jew, to the wise and to the unwise," 
until he was rich in the grace of God. The igno- 
rant man must spend his time in getting knowl- 
edge, the wise man in spending what he has al- 
ready gained. We are all more or less wise in 
this blessed land, therefore our plan differs mostly 
from that of Christ in intensity and not in kind. 
Christ had a mission, and so have we. He was 
sent, so are we. This is revealed in the text ; for 
He was sent, 

I. " To HEAL THE BROKEN HEARTED." 

What a strange new treatment. There are 
those who bind up the broken arm and the broken 
limb, but where is the surgeon for the broken 
heart ? There are hospitals for the diseased body 
and the shattered health, but he who has only the 
broken heart must go on until he falls by the 
way. There are countless physicians for the 
body, yet so few who care for the poor tired soul. 
But there has come One whose special mission is 
to heal the broken hearted, and He never fails 
to cure. In the text He speaks forth in words 
from Isaiah which have been a challenge to all 
the world for centuries. No one has disputed 



The Program of Life 49 



their meaning, no one now disputes their au- 
thority. 

By the broken hearted He does not mean merely 
the discouraged, for all are at times discouraged ; 
nor the diseased for all thus suffer; nor yet the 
disappointed, but it means especially those who 
have lost hope. It refers to the time of captivity 
of the Jews when they had long since given up 
the thought of returning to their own land, and 
hence to the hopeless condition of man in sin. 

Is it not strange that God should be interested 
in any one so helpless and worthless, the God 
who loves perfection and beauty, and upon whom 
imperfection must always jar? Why should He 
be interested in a ruined thing? Because it is 
His nature to care for the needy as is, in a small 
way, shown in the physician who will relieve 
suffering regardless of the pay he is to receive. 
It is His nature as well as His business to help 
the needy. Why did Christ not say, 

" I am come to associate with the nobles, to 
feast with the rich, to talk with governors and 
princes and kings?" It was because He had 
no mission to men who did not need Him. But 
the broken hearted, those without hope, how His 
heart went out to them! It was the opportunity 
for His power to be revealed. He would now 
prove His mission, as well as to help the needy. 

A beautiful vase, said to be the most beautiful 
of its kind in the world, was not widely known 
until it was broken into a hundred pieces by the 



5<D The Message of To-Morrow 

careless act of a drunkard. Then the most ex- 
quisite colouring and the most beautiful decora- 
tion was for the first time revealed in the broken 
edges. It was carefully cemented together and is 
now kept in the British Museum of London, as 
one of the most precious articles of all that great 
collection. This Portland vase is of vastly greater 
worth since it was broken, for its preciousness 
was thus revealed. 

May it not be so with the human soul? Not 
only our own greatness but also the infinite good- 
ness of Christ is revealed in our recovery from 
sin. Christ is the one who will not only restore 
life to its former beauty, but will make it far more 
beautiful than man has ever known in his best 
moments. He is ever willing to heal the broken 
hearted. 

It is said that a young woman one day entered 
an insane asylum to see if there was anyone there 
whom she might help. She was taken to the 
room of a poor girl, who had been a long time in 
that pitiable condition, and who stood most of the 
time looking out of the window. The doctor 
said, " Speak to her." She advanced and laid 
her hand on the girl's arm and said something. 
At once the insane girl turned and burst into tears, 
the doctor exclaimed, " Thank heaven, she can 
be cured." And she was. No one could recall 
the words spoken. It was the touch of sympathy 
that gave hope and recovery. So Christ has 
come with His boundless sympathy to win us to 



The Program of Life 51 



Himself and so to heal the broken hearted. All 
who feel this touch may meet the opening year 
and the coming century in the bright light of hope 
and with the anthem of praise. 

" Not wholly lost O Father, 
Is this evil world of ours, 
Upward through its blood and ashes, 
Spring afresh the Eden flowers." 

II. " Deliverance to the captives," was the 

SECOND PART OF CHRIST'S GREAT PROGRAM. 

At this time the prisons of Palestine were 
crowded with prisoners. Yet Christ did not free 
them, for they were suffering the penalty of the 
law for crimes committed and He would not inter- 
fere with the civil law. He came not to change 
institutions but to change men, not to work with 
the masses but with the individual. His wonder- 
ful discourse on the new birth was given to one 
man, that is, to Nicodemus ; His matchless sermon 
on the water of life was preached to the woman 
at the well at Sychar; His immortal teaching 
on the resurrection to the weeping sister of 
Lazarus, and most of His other discourses were 
to the chosen few. The captivity to which He 
refers is not that of the foreign foe, or the prison 
cell, but that of the mind and soul to sin. And 
this is the worst kind of bondage as the history 
of the world proves. Stephen was stoned not by 
men of abandoned life, but by those like Saul of 



52 The Message of To-Morrow 

Tarsus, who were in captivity to wrong beliefs; 
as Paul in after life said in regard to this very 
crime, " I verily thought I did God service." 
Savonarola was executed by men who were in 
many ways noble, but who were in bondage to 
error. Christ Himself was crucified by men who 
were bound by the letter of the law. It is from 
the captivity of sin that Christ has come to set 
us free. Yet the world has not learned the les- 
son. We are still bound by our particular beliefs 
and are constantly trying to bring all things, even 
the providence of God into harmony with these. 
It is often said, 

" If I were God I would have things different 
in this world. I would start a revolution going, 
which would sweep away all evil doers. I would 
command the lightning out of the sky to strike 
down him who is unjust. There would be no 
more inequalities between man and man, for the 
good should have all the wealth and the wicked 
all the poverty, and I would write my demands 
across the sky and keep that page open forever." 

And because God does not manage the world 
according to such whims, man submits to the 
bondage of unbelief, which may bind him in chains 
forever. 

The farmer sows his seed in the field and it 
lies hidden in the grasp of the cold earth until the 
sun comes with his warmth of light, hunts for 
it, finds it, and stirs it into life. It is the sun 
that breaks the shell of the seed and sets the germ 



The Program of Life 



S3 



free. Not according to the law of the seed alone 
but rather according to the great providence and 
power of the sun which wakes it to life. Thus 
the seed sown in our hearts, lies dormant in the 
conditions and circumstances of life until Christ 
who is our life, comes to bring forth all that is 
good and great in us, not according to the narrow 
laws of our own natures, but according to His 
own blessed will. This is the greatest deliver- 
ance that can come to the captive for " Whom 
Christ makes free he shall be free indeed." 

III. " TO GIVE SIGHT TO THE BLIND," IS THE 
THIRD PART OF THE GREAT PROGRAM OF 
LIFE. 

Of what use is freedom without sight. A 
blind man must be led by the hand lest he stumble 
and fall. But if his sight be restored he can find 
his way alone anywhere. Israel, liberated from 
bondage in Babylon, needed sight by which they 
might go over hills, and through valleys, and 
across rivers to their own land. So the progress 
of Christ's mission is logical, for no sooner is 
freedom granted than there is also given the keen 
vision that goes far beyond that of the natural 
eye. 

There is a noted painting by a famous artist, 
which represents a blind girl sitting by the en- 
trance of the Catacombs and holding a taper to 
the traveller who is about to enter the darkness of 
those ancient homes of the martyrs. This ap- 



54 The Message of To-Morrow 

parent paradox has its reality in the outer world 
every day. The one who may be blind to the 
world's power and fame, may furnish readily the 
light for the explorer of divine things. There 
is a difference then between the natural and the 
spiritual vision and the latter is of infinitely 
greater importance. 

Man is constantly sacrificing the sight of the 
eye to that of the mind and soul. In one of our 
large colleges last year, the senior class had 43 
per cent, of their number who wore eye glasses. 
One half of these began to wear them after they 
were well advanced in their course. That is, as 
the sight of the mind grew keener, the sight of 
the eye suffered. The savage may see eight, ten 
or fifteen miles over the prairie, but not an inch 
in mathematics. The scholar may see but a little 
way along the surface of the earth, but he sees 
millions of miles in astronomy. 

Old Homer was blind to this world, but he saw 
what no one else could see in classic poetry, and 
pictured what no one else could paint in classic 
life. 

John Milton was blind to earth but he saw 
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained as no other 
human eye ever saw it. 

Christ never promised to heal every blind man 
when He was on earth, nor did He do it; and 
those whom He did heal were examples of the 
great healing power in the divine life. There 
was many a man when Christ walked upon the 



The Program of Life $5 



earth, blinder than Bartimeus. They looked at 
Christ and then asked, 

" Art thou He that should come, or look we for 
another." The answer was, " Come and see." 
And as they looked they saw One whom the world 
loves because He will not cheat the blind, be- 
cause they are blind; or outrun the lame because 
they are lame, or push aside the palsied because 
they are helpless. Ah, there is a new vision of 
a new life. This is seeing the truth incarnate 
that we may live it, seeing mercy that we may 
love it, seeing salvation that we may accept it. 
This is the restored vision in the program of 
Christ. 

Men place lamps at the street corners not be- 
cause travellers have no eyes but rather because 
they have, and are expected to use them. God 
has set His revelation along the highway of the 
soul, because man has and should use his spiritual 
vision. 

You are walking carelessly along the street 
some dark night when some one suddenly rushes 
out from the side and trips you. After that you 
have your eyes about you that you may not again 
suffer. 

So as you are hurrying along life's pathway, 
some one rushes out and brings you to the ground. 
For the first time you see plainly, and behold the 
culprit is an ancestor, fulfilling the fourth com- 
mandment which says, that the " Sins of the 
fathers shall be visited upon the children unto 



56 The Message of To-Morrow 



the third and fourth generation of them that hate 
Me." This is what they call Heredity, and by it 
we learn that we may be wronged by our ances- 
tors as well as by our co-temporaries, and the 
business of the new vision is to show us where 
the danger is. 

It is supposed by many that Paul's thorn in the 
flesh was weak eyes. It is quite certain that his 
eyes were so weak that he had to have an amanu- 
ensis. And when he did write one epistle him- 
self, he called special attention to it and said, " See 
with what large letters (characters) I have 
written unto you with mine own hand." He who 
could see so poorly with the natural vision, was 
caught up to the third heaven and saw things 
which human language could not describe, and 
which the human mind could not comprehend. 

There is many a poor soul rejected of men and 
bound to the daily drudgery, who sees further in 
the glories of God than can earth's wisest philos- 
opher. There are parents and Sabbath School 
teachers who have keener vision in spiritual 
things than all the kings and queens of earth, 
because Christ has given them the true recovery 
of sight. 

iv. " to preach the acceptable year of the 
Lord," is the fourth part of the great 
program of christ. 
It is hard to find any time that is acceptable to 

man. There is always something wrong with the 



The Program of Life 57 



days; they are too hot or too cold, too long or 
too short. Yet God finds an acceptable year. He 
is less critical and more charitable toward us than 
we are toward Him, and yet He is perfect and we 
are not. The disciples at one time could not bear 
the men who did not do as they wished, and so 
they asked Christ, 

" Wilt Thou that we command fire to come 
down out of heaven and consume them ? " But 
Christ rebuked them and taught them to honour 
any man who did a noble deed, whatever was his 
method. Any victory for good is acceptable to 
the Lord. 

The acceptable year to the Jews was the year 
of Jubilee, when slaves were freed and debts were 
paid and claims were settled and rewards were 
given for all service and joy was the key note 
of all life. Christ holds this up as the hope of 
the Christian era, and no year has so good a right 
to it as this the opening year of the century. 

" The acceptable year of the Lord ? " Why 
did He stop there ? Why did He not read the rest 
of the sentence, as He was reading about Him- 
self from the Prophecy of Isaiah? Why did He 
not read, " And the day of vengeance of our 
God?" 

Because He came to destroy vengeance which 
He put away in Himself, for all who will believe 
and trust Him. He broke a sentence in two in 
order to leave that out. It is not that God's anger 
is cold or His wrath dead. No, no. But Christ 



58 The Message of To-Morrow 

was there to receive the effect of God's vengeance 
in Himself. It was Christ's sacrifice that made 
the time acceptable unto God. His whole life 
led up to this. When He preached, when He 
worked miracles, when He moved the hearts of 
His followers, He studied not so much to be 
pleasing to the people as to be acceptable to the 
Father; and He never failed. He can as easily 
make our lives as acceptable to the Father, and 
that is His mission. All of our hopes of happi- 
ness are here for the acceptable time to God is 
when our lives are in harmony with His plan. 
Hence He looks more at the attitude than at the 
action. 

The acceptable time in the family is when the 
children are all in loving accord with the hopes 
and desires of the parents. The acceptable time 
to the business man is when all in his employ 
are earnestly striving to carry out the great 
schemes he has set agoing. The acceptable time 
in the Church is when there is peace and harmony 
of effort in executing God's purpose. 

God's great will is not that we should struggle 
against Him or against circumstances, but that 
we should accept the divine plan and enjoy His 
favour always. What can a passenger do on a 
great ocean steamer in time of a storm? Can he 
stay with his uplifted hand the oncoming gale? 
Can he with his breath blow back the fierce fly- 
ing wind ? Can he hold and guide the great ship 
when he has no power over it and does not know 



The Program of Life 



59 



distances or directions and when the stars are 
shut out by dense darkness? No! He can not, 
nor will he try. He can only obey the captain 
who has mastered the sea in a thousand storms. 
He is acceptable to the captain when he is obedi- 
ent to the great power which safely holds and 
guides the ship. 

So the acceptable year of the Lord, which 
Christ came to preach, and which all of His 
heralds since have proclaimed, is the time when 
Christ fulfills His program, completes His plan 
for our lives, and brings peace to the soul no 
matter what may have been the storms raging 
about us. 

We stood beneath one of the great echo domes 
of the old world and made sounds, some musical, 
some discordant ; but they all came back as sweet 
music. The harsh and discordant sounds were 
changed to harmony and rhythm ; the musical to 
sweeter music, because only such sounds could 
come from that beautiful dome. There is an echo 
dome of God above us all and when we stand in 
the right place in His province, we shall hear 
only the sweet strains of the glad Jubilee of God, 
the acceptable year of the Lord, the fulfillment 
of the divinely arranged program of life. 



IV 



LABOURERS TOGETHER WITH GOD 

" For we are labourers together with Godj ye are 
God's husbandry; ye are God's building." — i Corinth- 
ians 3: p. 

There is everywhere a definite belief that God 
is in the world executing His own will. On no 
other theory can we explain the flow, the change, 
and the transformation of history. But how near 
does God come to men and events, and for what ? 
These are the questions of the morning. And 
they are answered very plainly in the text. 

I. " Ye are labourers together with God." 

Then God comes into personal contact with 
all, and into special relation to those that love 
Him. The destiny of a man who is loyal to God 
is linked with the divine nature. Such a one has 
the special attention of the God of the universe, 
the One in whom he may find whatever is need- 
ful in the daily life. 

Leading up to a city of Austria is a bridge in 
the parapets of which are many statues of Christ. 
One represents Him as the Sower. And as the 
farmer goes by in the early morning, he stops 
to do honour to Him in whose hands are the winds 
60 



Labourers Together With God 61 

and the rain and the germs hidden in the seed. 
Another statue represents Christ as the Carpenter, 
and as the workman goes by he stops to worship 
Him who said, 

" Except the Lord build the house, they labour 
in vain who build it." Then there is the statue 
of the great Physician who is the human healer's 
model and inspiration as he hurries along on his 
mission of mercy. And later in the day when the 
sun has kissed away the dew from the grass, the 
sick and discouraged come to thank Him for help, 
who is Physician of both soul and body. So in 
the bridge every form of life may find represented 
a Saviour to suit his need. 

In the approach to the next world, nay in every 
avenue of this life there is the presence of the 
infinite God, for the needy time of every soul. 
As truly as Christ talked with Mary at the tomb 
and she knew Him not, and stood on the banks 
of the sea of Galilee and watched the disciples 
fishing and was by them unobserved, and walked 
with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus 
and was taken for a traveller, so truly is He with 
us watching us in every move, walking with us 
by the way and talking with us in the trying mo- 
ments of life. It is then our business to learn that 
we are labourers together with God. 

But how are we to be labourers together with 
God? In the easiest and simplest way, that is by 
finding His will and plan for us and conforming 
to it just as nearly as we can. 



62 The Message of To-Morrow 

How does a man grow strong after the physi- 
cian has killed the disease in him? He has had 
a hard fight and though he won, the fierceness of 
the struggle has left him very weak. Does he 
now come back to health by breaking every law 
of body and mind? No, but rather by keeping 
every law and becoming in the very simplest way 
a worker together with God. So in the spiritual 
life, we bring these powers up to God by being 
obedient to His will and so gaining divine power. 

A century ago there was a great discovery 
made, that of the planet Neptune. And how was 
this made? Did Le Verrier the astronomer look 
and look till he saw it with the naked eye? Did 
he build a very high scaffolding to come nearer 
to the planet? No, for these are unreasonable 
ways. But he did take the laws written in the 
sky, and in lines and angles, and as taught in 
mathematics, and studied to bring himself into 
conformity with these as one would study the 
laws of God in His holy Word to know the di- 
vine will. And when he did so he said, 

" There, at a certain point 2,862,457,000 miles 
away from the sun and in longitude 326 degrees 
must be a planet. The agitation among the 
heavenly bodies shows it." Just so one studying 
God's Word would say, 

" There must be a Saviour, for the agitation in 
human experience shows it." 

So they turned their telescope to the place des- 
ignated as in accordance with God's plan of the 



Labourers Together With God 63 

heavens, and behold the planet flashed in view 
just where God's law said it would. Le Verrier 
who made the computation was a worker together 
with God. He found God's plan and conformed 
to it. 

There was no change in the heavens. The 
planets wheeled on just the same. Neptune suf- 
fered no jar when it was discovered. The change 
was all in the astronomer Le Verrier, for he 
brought himself into conformity with the laws 
and will of God. 

Now it is the essence of religion that we put 
ourselves in line with God's nature and plan. 
That is what we find in this story. One said, 

" I am of Paul," the great debater and Chris- 
tian logican. Another said, " I am of Apollos," 
the great Christian orator. But Paul said, 

" You have missed the meaning, for what mat- 
ters it whether it be of Paul or of Apollos or 
Cephas? These are only ministers, but Christ 
giveth the increase." It is the union of effort 
each striving for the divine approval that brings 
success to any work. 

Let us through much prayer and the constant 
study of God's Word learn His will as Le Ver- 
rier found it in the sky. There we shall be able 
to lead others in the way of life. 

The Church is the great school of God where 
we shall come into the power of seeing eternal 
things. When we shall learn to be forbearing 
and forgiving and helpful, where we shall have 



64 The Message of To-Morrow 



the clear vision by which we shall see further into 
the mysteries of God than Le Verrier saw into the 
sky when he discovered the planet Neptune. We 
shall count these privileges of the church es- 
sential in our development of manhood and 
womanhood for eternity. We shall consider that 
we have lost something which can never be re- 
covered when we have missed the services. We 
shall pray for one another that in the union of 
heart and hand we shall come into the largest 
power. 

The French do not usually say that they are 
going to church but rather that they are going to 
assist in the service. It is a beautiful saying 
which clearly states that the Master needs us as 
really as we need Him. A union of the human 
and the divine is necessary to the best results 
in life. 

Labourers together with God? It is well that 
it is so. If God were labourer together with us, 
then we would have the greater responsibility, but 
as it is God bears the greatest responsibility, for 
we are labourers together with Him. 

He ought then to have His way. The child 
goes to his father and says, 

" Papa, I will do just as you say ! You may 
plan my life with your greater wisdom and tell 
me what to do and I will do it." Then will that 
father plan the worst sort of life of sin and suffer- 
ing for that boy ? Will he treat him cruelly ? Re- 
member that he is that boy's father and these 



Labourers Together With God 65 

questions will be answered in your heart even 
before you speak. As soon as we conform in 
spirit, in love, and life to God's will and plan, we 
have a Father, perfect in love and justice who 
does all that we will let Him do, for our joy and 
happiness and progress in righteousness. 

We have a large number of explicit statements 
from Him to this effect. 

" All things work together for good to them 
that love Him, and to them who are the called 
according to His purpose." " Will a mother 
forget her little babe?" " Yes, she may, but I 
will not forget thee. I will never leave thee 
nor forsake thee." " I will strengthen thee, yea, 
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the 
right hand of My righteousness." Yes, God has 
a deep personal interest in us. 

But the Christian life, this working together 
with God, is not to be a life of idleness, but one 
of tireless activity in the same direction in which 
God is busiest, that is, in saving life. If there is 
anything that makes a man sad it is that his son 
is leading a desecrated, disgraceful, and wasting 
life. He, as father, has spent a great deal of 
time and money to bring that boy to a pure, noble 
manhood. Yet it is all in vain. Over and over 
you will hear him say. 

" I would rather he had died," and he really 
would. It is the wasted life that hurts the father. 
If God is ever sad it must be at ruined life. He 
longs for it, He waits for it, He works with it. 



66 The Message of To-Morrow 

Then He expects us to work with Him. When 
one of the family is lost all the rest turn out to 
hunt for him. So God would have us work for 
the recovery of lost life. He has done His part 
in the work and sacrifice of his Son. Shall we 
do ours? 

If Christ's mission was great, yours is also 
great. What would you think of a Saviour who 
would come from the sky to save Himself all the 
trouble and suffering possible — that we might 
bear it? You would not think much of such a 
Saviour. And yet that is the position we assume. 
We try to save ourselves. We try to gain all the 
pleasure we can, even at the expense of others. 
A poor sort of physician would he be who would 
not go to help the sufferer, because it cost him 
some time, even though the patient could not pay 
him in money. There is a universal feeling 
among men that suffering must be relieved, and 
that man has a large part in the work. 

With all our powers we should bend to this 
task of preaching and living a helpful gospel, one 
that will ever witness to the Saviour of men. 

A young man in New York has rescued twenty 
people from drowning at one of the piers. He 
says he wants to live until he saves one hundred. 
He chooses work near the water, where his hands 
are busy with his daily toil until he hears the cry 
of the drowning, then he rushes forth, leaving 
all to save life. O that we might be filled with 
the same burning zeal to rescue the perishing. 



Labourers Together With God 67 

So God has given us the beautiful mission of 
saving life and lifting it to the divine companion- 
ship, where " We are labourers together with 
God." 

II. " Ye are His husbandry." 

Then God works specially upon the hearts and 
lives of His followers. This is not strange. You 
would expect God to have some way of express- 
ing Himself to the world. 

There are ways of working upon the minds of 
others. One in speaking to an audience works 
somewhat upon the minds of the hearers. The 
teacher in the school tills soil as truly as the 
gardener cultivates his garden; but the teacher 
tills the soil of the mind. So it is that God 
is the worker in the world in a strange and 
mysterious way. As the child in school does 
not know that his mind is being cultivated, be- 
cause he does not know the process, so we may 
be ignorant of God's way, and yet the truth 
stands. O how wonderful is God, that He should 
come to us to teach us His will and His way. 
O that He should consider our hearts His place 
to work! O that He should drive out the evil, 
the low, the sensual and put in their place all that 
is good and true and beautiful. It is His tillage 
and it is His right. 

But the other half of this truth is that He works 
not only upon man's heart, but upon the world 
through human agency. 



68 The Message of To-Morrow 

The history of the world is one long testimony 
to this great fact. The discovery of America had 
to wait for man. Inventions also, and the power 
of rapid transportation, and all had to wait for 
man, and God only worked through him to ac- 
complish these things. 

In like manner the reason why missions have 
gone slowly is because God has had poor ma- 
terial to work with, or not enough of what was 
good. Africa and India and China, and all 
other mission fields will be won for Christ just so 
sure as there are enough consecrated lives on 
whom God can work in converting these peoples. 

And this is not without its lesson to us. There 
are here within the range of this church many on 
whom God will work, but it must be through us. 
Shall we be willing? Shall we be God's hus- 
bandry ? 

" Shall we whose souls are lighted with wisdom from 
on high, 

Shall we to men benighted, the Lamp of life deny? 

III. Ye are God's building." 

This is the completed work. There now it 
stands for approval. 

Paul used this figure because some of the most 
beautiful buildings of the day were in Corinth, 
and these Corinthians to whom he wrote these 
words, would at once see the lesson. It is as 
though he were with them, and he had pointed 
to those magnificent structures whose beauty is 



Labourers Together With God 69 

still known the world over in the Corinthian style 
of architecture, and had said : " See, there is the 
best that man can do. That is the glory of the 
whole earth. But ye are the architecture of God, 
made by His own hand, and ye are the glory of 
heaven." 

O it is precious to know that God is bringing 
us to completion, and that e'er long, we shall 
stand forth with finished work, and He shall say 
of this new creation as He said of the old, 

" It is very good." 

No longer may it be said : " You are the archi- 
tect of your own fortune," but rather. " We are 
God's building." Now we know why fife has 
not gone just as we had planned. Now we know 
why one room in the heart is large and another 
small, why there has been clay used sometimes 
where we would rather have had granite. It is 
because God has the plans, and He is bringing 
the building to completion to suit Himself; and 
why not, for He alone knows how to build for 
eternity. To know that e'er long we shall be His 
building, completed according to the divine plan, 
to know that there will be nothing kept that 
ought to be lost, and nothing lost that should be 
kept — this is our inspiration for to-day, for this 
life and for eternity. 

During a little rest from the hard work of busy 
pastorates my friend and I were travelling in the 
mountains of old Virginia. As night came on, 



70 The Message of To-Morrow 

we turned aside from the country road to a beau- 
tifully lighted house. We wondered why the 
lights were burning so brightly. We went to the 
door and asked for lodging. My name somehow 
attracted the attention of the fine looking gentle- 
man who met us and we were invited in, and 
enjoyed all the great hospitality of that beautiful 
home. 

Then we learned why there was rejoicing there 
and why the lights were all burning. The gen- 
tleman who entertained us was one of the most 
noted sculptors of the land. He had just com- 
pleted a statue of the great General, Robert E. 
Lee, and he was rejoicing in his triumph. He 
told us about his trials, his discouragements, his 
difficulties. But these after all only seemed in- 
cidents to the one great event, for the next day 
the statue was to be unveiled before the great 
throng of witnesses. 

So one day the brilliant light of God shall shine 
upon this dark world in commemoration of a 
great event. How long it has taken to come to 
this moment. With what infinite pains all has 
been done. Man would have given up the work 
long ago, but God is never discouraged. And 
now it is done, the workmanship of God, your- 
self, for " ye are His workmanship, created anew 
in Christ." We shall be unveiled in eternity, in 
the great throng of witnesses which no man can 
number, in the brilliant light of heaven before the 
throne of God, and hearing the words. " Ye are 
His workmanship." " Ye are complete in Him." 



V 



THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL 

" I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is 
the power of God unto salvation to every one that be- 
lieveth." — Romans i: 16. 

The greatest power in the world is not that 
of steam or electricity or dynamite, or even of 
the newspaper, which is the power of man unto 
education; but it is the Gospel of Christ, which 
is the power of God unto salvation, the good 
news from Heaven. 

Nothing so moves the world as news. The 
story of invention, of discovery, of philanthropy, 
of heroism, of the nation's prosperity, of the suc- 
cess of the army and navy, fascinates the world 
and makes of every man's face a question mark, 
and his life an expression of hunger more intense 
than that of the half-starved body for food. Good 
news arouses the stupid, interests the intense, 
cheers the discouraged, lifts the brow of hope, 
and swings open the door of life to a successful 
future. Can anything do more than this, which 
seems the limit of possibility? 

The text answers, yes. For there is one power 
greater than any or all of these. It is the power 
of the Gospel of Christ to every one who believes. 
7i 



J2 The Message of To-Morrow 

It is that which pieces out the small possibility 
in the human life and makes us acceptable above. 
It is the new power in the world, for it was in- 
troduced after the creation was finished and when 
our first parents had disobeyed God and found 
themselves in sin. Their question then was, 
" How may we come again into right relations 
with God?" 

The answer came quickly from God, as out of 
an open sky : " Right relations with the Al- 
mighty may again be established through Christ, 
who is the power of the Gospel of God, for He 
is the power of God unto salvation to every one 
that believeth." 

This is the ever-living question, and this, too, 
is the never changing answer. 

It is the new and supreme power in the world. 
Yet it does not attempt to manage commerce, or 
run railroads, or print newspapers, or rule gov- 
ernments. These and ten thousand other things 
are assigned to man. 

But this power of the Gospel of Christ comes 
to do what has never been done aside from it and 
that which no other power can accomplish. And 
what is this? 

I. TO BRING THE STORY OF PARDON, IS THE FIRST 
GREAT POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

The cry of every life from Eden to the present 
moment is for pardon. All voices utter it, all 
ears hear it and no noise of earth can still this 



The Power of The Gospel 



73 



cry. Ever and anon it goes up from the im- 
prisoned human soul. 

A man walks out of the presence of the offi- 
cials, having paid the penalty of his crime in 
money or in daily toil, and is called a free man. 
But if that is all, he is not free. He is as much 
bound in soul as ever, for all that judge and jury 
and civil law can do relates only to his circum- 
stances, to his conditions in the world. But sin 
is not so much a thing of outer conditions as of 
inner life, which civil law can not reach. 

A man is not free simply because he can walk 
the streets and has the liberty of coming and 
going as he may please. Sin is not only a crime 
against man, but also against God. Sin has so 
taken hold of the inner life that we can not breathe 
it out of us at will, or work it off by some form 
of exercise, or cast it aside as we would discard 
a wornout garment. And the world, with its 
myriad discoveries and inventions, has not found 
any way by which it may relieve the human soul 
of this burden of guilt. 

The world is more concerned with this ques- 
tion than with any or all others. It writes its 
story on the careworn face of the mother, who 
in her deep poverty wonders if it is wrong to do 
some things which men usually condemn that she 
may get bread for the children. It follows the 
young man to his poorly furnished room after he 
has been obliged to do a dishonest thing rather 
than lose his position. It faces the young woman 



74 The Message of To-Morrow 

when temptations come like a mighty rolling sea. 
It goes on up into the great store and the ele- 
gantly furnished office, where the race for wealth 
goes on the swift wings of electricity, and where 
men hurl the human voice half way across the 
continent to complete a bargain that may have 
in it millions of dollars and millions of human 
lives. 

The court of conscience is yet to be passed. 
No human barrister, in his own strength, has 
ever won a single case here; no human appeal 
has yet stayed a single proceeding, no plea of 
pity has ever moved a single feature in the face 
of this stern Judge, and not all the earth's riches 
has ever moved Him from the right so much as 
the breadth of a hair. Socrates says these facts 
must be reckoned with as much as the laws of 
heat and cold, and all human experience shows 
that he was only speaking the solemn truth of 
God. 

A short time ago there appeared in the papers 
the account of a man who came from somewhere 
in the West, 2,000 miles to Boston to request that 
he be declared guilty and made to serve out a 
sentence for a crime. Yet no police authority had 
ever laid a hand on him, no jury had ever heard 
his case, no Judge in earthly court had ever pro- 
nounced sentence upon him. But he had for 
years been before the court of conscience, where 
he found sheriff, judge and jury all in one, and 
had been condemned. 



The Power of The Gospel 



75 



A more powerful court it was than any of 
earth, and it was the only one which could lead 
the man to true liberty. In such a case it seems 
almost a pleasure for a man to confess, because 
in it he has found the pardon of God, the power 
of God unto salvation. 

Yes, the tragedies of life have been along this 
line, and the masterpieces of literature have told 
the same story, as in the writings of Sophocles, 
Dante, Milton, Goethe, Byron and Shakespeare. 
But no man has found a relief. That is furnished 
by the Gospel of Christ, which is the power of 
the pardon of God to every one that believes. 

Look at it ! Sin is a power to be reckoned 
with in your life, and there must be a greater 
power to oppose and destroy it. The theory of 
medicine to-day, is not to try to educate a man 
out of the disease which has taken fast hold upon 
him, but to provide something that will destroy 
the disease. This is true also in the case of sin. 
Christ is the counter force, the supreme power 
who has come to break the power of sin and grant 
pardon. His cure is that of divine surgery. It 
is treatment if possible, amputation if necessary, 
but always the exercise of a power far beyond 
that of man. His miracles show this, for they 
are lessons in His sin-destroying power. He re- 
stored alike the man who was born blind, the 
leper, the palsied, the possessed with a devil, 
without asking any reward in return. He was 
not willing that there should be deformity in the 



y6 The Message of To- Morrow 



human body, nor is He willing that there shall be 
weakness and sin in the spiritual nature. So He 
longs to pardon and free from guilt all who will 
believe in Him. Others may diagnose the case, 
He alone can cure. 

He is the one who pleads our cause before the 
tribunal of Conscience as well as before the bar 
of God. He has never lost a case. He has al- 
ways, when allowed by us, procured a stay of 
proceedings and secured a pardon, making us 
acceptable to ourselves and to the Father. This 
is what gives us true happiness, energizing us 
with divine life, and setting our lives in harmony 
with God's life, so that we approach more nearly 
to the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ. 

Will such a power, wonderful and supreme, 
ever fail to be helpful? No, not 

" As long as the heart has passions, 
As long as life has woes." 

For this is the power of God to every one that 
believeth. 

II. TO BRING THE STORY OF SALVATION IS THE 
SECOND GREAT MISSION OF THE GOSPEL. 

This does not mean merely salvation from 
death, but also from sin and all its forces. It is 
the great interest of salvation to see that life 
grows larger and larger. That this may be pos- 
sible there must be that intimate and immediate 



The Power of The Gospel 



77 



union with Christ which Paul always preached 
and which every healthy Christian enjoys. It is 
granted " To every one who believeth," as the 
rest of the text states. The first act of salvation 
is only the beginning of a life which is to continue 
forever in goodness and greatness. That is what 
life is for, to increase and expand and enlarge. 

" Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear 
much fruit," said Christ in one of His greatest 
discourses. Hence the Gospel is not only the 
story of pardon, but also the story of that which 
keeps a man, and saves his life after he is for- 
given. 

The difference between saving the soul and sav- 
ing the life, is that of saving the seed planted in 
the earth with the earth itself, and saving the 
harvest that may grow from the seed. The farmer 
is concerned with the seed and the field of course, 
because without them he could not have a harvest. 
But he is far more concerned with what the seed 
will produce. So God is concerned with the sav- 
ing of the soul, that is the establishing of right 
relations between Himself and the lost, but He 
is far more concerned with what that life will pro- 
duce in all the future ages of its endless existence. 
He would not have gone to so much trouble and 
expense to save man if He had not wanted life 
to develop into something greater and larger 
through all time and eternity. 

In this the world gives man no help, unless it 
has received its lessons from the Gospel. Books 



78 The Message of To-Morrow 



and papers are silent upon this great subject un- 
less they have learned their lessons from the one 
infallible source. The man who sins and keeps 
on sinning is at great odds. He has the Great 
God the forces of nature and the order of things 
against him. But the one who by the act of be- 
lief brings himself into union with Christ and by 
so continuing increases his security and his power 
for good, daily 

" Overcomes the world." 

This is the power of the Gospel of Christ and 
the power of the Christ of the Gospel, 

" That lifts the fallen, cheers the faint, 
Heals the sick and leads the blind." 

It is the world power for it enters India and 
China and Japan and every other country and 
saves and builds up life wherever it may be found. 
That is a significant expression, 

" Life saving," and it is not confined to any 
place or any country or any nation or any con- 
tinent, but is used wherever an effort is put forth 
to recover life from destruction. But the further 
fact found in this divine salvation revealed in 
the Gospel is that the act of saving is not for the 
moment and is not to end with the loosening of 
the hold of evil but that then the great forces of 
good are to begin their work of recovery and 
growth. When the priest and the Levite went by 
the man who had been robbed on the highway, 



The Power of The Gospel 



79 



the robbers had gone and the man needed no 
further defense from their dangerous attacks ; but 
it was the Good Samaritan who took the man and 
set him on his own beast and took care of him 
that the man might come back to useful life. This 
is a picture of Christ in the advanced stages of 
salvation where life that is saved is to have the 
best chance that a God can give it. 

The seaman by the sea saves a man from 
drowning not because the man to be saved, be- 
lieves one thing or another, but because life is 
precious; and we all recoil from its destruction, 
because when it is once saved it is expected 
to be useful in its further growth. Thus God has 
written in human life the lesson of His own great 
Gospel, that life is to be saved, that it may grow 
and increase in righteousness through all eternity. 

It is in this way that God expects to have His 
reward for the great work of salvation. If man 
were never to be more than he is when he is 
converted, he would not in any way pay for the 
trouble. If a child were to remain forever in the 
helpless pulpy state in which he is born he would 
not be a very welcome visitor in the family. As 
the chief delight of the parents is to see the child 
grow and become large and great, so the great 
delight of God is to see the rapid and sure growth 
of those who are redeemed from the power of 
sin. 

Did you ever have something suddenly happen 
you by which you thought all the power and 



8o The Message of To-Morrow 



vigour of life would be gone, and yet you would 
live on, a burden to yourself and a care to others ? 
Then you have a vivid picture of what the destruc- 
tion of life is by the power of sin. Then did you 
hear them say, 

" O he will recover and be as well as ever, for 
the treatment has been successful ? " 

And this is the illustration of the divine im- 
pulse of eternal hope, in the redeemed life and 
the opening of the way for the large development 
of the immortal soul. All acts of life are some- 
how related to the future of the soul, so that we 
instinctively say, 

" If I had not been saved, if I had not 
had my life so developed I never could have 
done this or that, I never could have been so 
happy, I never could have gained these lasting 
victories." 

There is no life in human form so low that 
God does not love it and try in every possible 
way to bring it back to power, so long as any hope 
or possibility is left. He cares for it as the fire- 
man fans the flickering flame in which is all his 
hope for a blazing fire. 

The other day while riding in a car in our city 
I saw a sign which read, 

" Second hand building material for sale here." 

I wondered why that should not be written over 
the habitation of every human being. " Second 
hand building material ! " What else are we ? 
What man or woman has not tried to work out 



The Power of The Gospel 81 



his own life for himself or herself? We wrote 
in our copy books when we were in school, 

" Man is the architect of his own fortune. ,, 

We tried it and failed, at least in the spiritual 
life. We had the material, but in building the 
eternal habitation of the soul we failed. So we 
have wisely turned all over to the Master Builder 
as second hand material. Much of it He has had 
to destroy. But with the rest He is doing the 
best that a God can do. The process has been 
long and somewhat painful but always successful. 
And when the work is well on the way He shows 
what He has done and says, 

" Ye are the temple of the Living God." 

What ! So changed as that ? Has the purpose 
and skill and workmanship of the Master Builder 
power to so beautify and adorn and hallow and 
sanctify? It must be so, for this is the power 
of the Master and this is the story of the Gospel 
of Christ which is the Power of God unto the 
continuous salvation of body, mind and soul to 
every one that believeth. He is the Builder and 
yet we build larger and better than ever. He has 
great honour and yet we have greater honour than 
ever before. He has our lives and yet we have 
larger and better life than we have ever known. 

III. The third power of the Gospel is that 

OF BELIEF. 

There has lately come into the world a gospel 
of electricity. What good news to us that we can 



82 The Message of To-Morrow 



talk with our friends hundreds of miles away, 
and even across the sea! What good news, that 
by electricity our work is made easier and travel 
a pleasure ! Yet no one receives the benefit of this 
great power unless he uses it in his own behalf. 
Men wonder why it is that they do not enjoy the 
Gospel, and they have not stopped to think that 
it is because they have not applied it to their 
lives. Electricity is a dangerous force unless mas- 
tered, and yet men think that a still greater power 
may be fooled with now and then, and that they 
will receive from this the lasting benefits which 
only a thorough mastery can provide. Electricity 
can only when properly used take away the drudg- 
ery of physical life, while the power of the Gospel 
in Christ will, when properly applied, take away 
the power of sin, whose effect otherwise is eternal. 

So the Gospel has proved its right to be called 
a world force. For eighteen hundred years it 
has held sway over the hearts of men, and has 
never failed in one thing where it had the chance 
it rightfully claims. 

No great power of mechanics or work of 
science has ever existed without its gospel of au- 
thority. In mathematics we constantly turn to 
rules and figures. In chemistry we are ever using 
the formula and signs, and in astronomy, lines 
and circles. In the higher life we must constantly 
turn to our authority, to find how to work out the 
problems of authority, sorrow, perplexity, mis- 
fortune and of sin. And we are never disap- 



The Power of The Gospel 83 



pointed, for the Gospel of Christ is the power 
of God to every one who believes. 

This is the story of all life. The ground opens 
its treasures to the farmer who believes with 
plow and harrow and daily toil, as well as with 
mind. The gold mine uncovers its riches to him 
who believes with pick and -shovel. Education 
is only for him who believes in burning the mid- 
night oil and in pouring over his books in cease- 
less toil, by the hour and month and year. And 
God asks no more of religion. 

What we want in religion as well as in every- 
thing else is certainty. Creed and confession, and 
theology are all very well in their several spheres ; 
but when trial and temptation and grief come, 
then what? The most that these can do is to 
steady us for the time. It is the business of 
the Gospel to be at that point with its message 
of One who will never fail in any time of trouble 
or need. This is the way of authority. And au- 
thority refers to an Author. So I bring you the 
Author of all good, whose word never changes, 
whose power never fails and who holds us in the 
hollow of His hand. 

Do you still ask that this be proved? Why, 
you believe in electricity and steam, and Astron- 
omy and Chemistry, and yet you have never 
proved these. You take them on the authority of 
men who have made mistakes and confessed to it, 
men whose honesty and truthfulness you have 
never proved. Then why not take the Power of 



84 The Message of To-Morrow 

the Gospel, which rests upon the authority of 
One who has never made one mistake in all time 
and eternity, and whose life goes unchallenged 
through eighteen hundred years? 

There are two ways of crossing the ocean. We 
may take a row boat and go altogether in our 
own way. This way however is not thronged and 
has never been popular. The other is by way of 
the great steamship which baffles the waves and 
defies the storms. And this is the way that most 
of us favour. Yet this is the way of authority 
with which, in the arrangements, we have had 
nothing to do. We trust ourselves entirely to 
the plan, preparation and method of another. 

There are in human experience two ways 
adopted by man for crossing the sea of life. There 
is the method one may choose for himself, that 
of self will, and of sin. If anyone has ever 
crossed in this way he has sent us no word, and 
many who have stopped on the further side of 
the journey have said it is a failure. The other 
method is that of the Gospel, that of the Christ, 
who never yet has failed, and in whom no one 
has yet been lost. This is the way of authority, 
the way of testimony, for the millions who have 
tried it testify to its safety. This is the power 
of the Christ written in the blessed Gospel which 
brings joy to the human heart, pleasure to the 
mind, ecstasy to the soul, and victory to the 
redeemed and enlarging eternal life. This is the 
way of authority which we love, for " it is the 



The Power of The Gospel 85 



Power of God unto salvation to everyone that 
believeth." 

" We go the way our fathers went, 
The way that leads from banishment, 
The king's highway of holiness." 



VI 



THE RIGHTS OF A MAN BEFORE THE FACE OF THE 
MOST HIGH 

" The Lord approveth not to turn aside the right of a 
man before the face of the Most High." — Lamentations 
3' 35- 

It was in a great court room of London and 
the accused was led before the bar of the nation. 
We heard the judge ask, 

" What rights have you before this tribunal ? " 

" The right of life and justice," answered the 
prisoner. 

Again the accused is at the bar (and this ac- 
cused is every human being) and the Judge of 
all the earth, seated upon His throne, asks, 

" What rights do you claim here ? " 

" The right of life, of choice, of justice, and 
of mercy/' answers the other " for Thy law says, 
' Thou wilt not turn aside the right of a man 
before the face of the Most High.' " 

This question then goes far beyond mere hu- 
man rights, which have ever been the subject of 
courts, and councils and conflicts on field of battle. 
The Continental Congress, Marathon, Inkerman, 
Waterloo and Gettysburg were all human courts 
of appeal; and all history is the account of one 
86 



The Rights of a Man 



87 



long struggle to adjust human rights. Yet these 
questions have not all been settled for the door 
of court room is ever open and the judge is ever 
ready to receive the suppliant. And no wonder, 
for God has written no infallible Bible of mere 
human rights, but has left man to find and apply 
this truth for himself. 

In this text we are brought up to the high level 
of the rights of a man before his Maker. To 
show what these are God has written a Book, 
the only one He has thought worth while to write. 
It is the largest and most complete of all records 
and one which will never be changed so long as 
time lasts and the human heart longs for help. 
In this book we learn that, 

I. Life is the first right of a man before the 

FACE OF THE MOST HlGH. 

The man who stood before the bar in the Lon- 
don court, had a right to live because he was a 
citizen of the nation and had not forfeited his 
right. He might have been in a foreign land, he 
might have been a cripple, and even imprisoned 
by an enemy in a foreign land, yet he could claim 
his right to the protection of his life even to the 
sacrifice of the army and navy of the nation. 

Every man has the right to live because he is 
under the government of God whose great wish 
for all is that life shall prevail. Man may be de- 
graded and dissipated, he may deface and disfigure 
himself, he may even be in the enemy's country 



88 The Message of To-Morrow 



beset by those who would gladly destroy him, as 
in the case of the Prodigal^ but so long as he is 
God's willing subject he has a right to claim life at 
the bar of the Judge of the universe. Man loses 
his life only when he disobeys God and breaks His 
laws. God's wish is that every man shall live 
and that he shall improve up to the limit of his 
possibility. 

Will God allow the oak the right of life for 
centuries that it may increase in size and strength 
through that long period only to die again; will 
He protect the giant of the California forest for 
ages that its branches may reach the clouds and 
its roots spread over hundreds of feet of ground 
only to perish soon, all this outlay for so short a 
time, and then let man who is to live forever, fade 
away in a few short years, like some tender plant ? 
No! no! a thousand times no! God has made 
every possible preparation for calling out and 
beautifying every power in man. The eye is 
suited to the light, the ear to sound, the hand to 
the mechanical appliances, the mind to the meas- 
ureless possibilities of knowledge, and the soul 
to the infinite truth of eternal life. 

By the soothing sunlight and the balmy air of 
spring God calls us away from wasting life. By 
the voice of the sounding sea does He take us 
from the wearing life in the crowded city to 
newer and fresher scenes. By the green of the 
hillside and the quiet of the mountain does God in- 
vite us to rest. By His spoken and written word, 



The Rights of a Man 



89 



and by every revelation are we assured of our 
right of life before the face of the Most High. 

To prove its sacredness, God has set the sever- 
est penalties upon the destruction of life. " An 
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," is the law. 
No one shall destroy this gift of God and escape. 
The clothing upon your body, the fence around 
your garden, the house around your family, the 
protection around cities and nations, are only the 
outer expression of God's infinite care of that 
which is to Him most precious, that is life. 

The Almighty provides all possible means, if 
man will only find them, for frightening away 
disease and for preserving life, that it may be 
crowned. 

Yes, man has the right of life before the face 
of the Most High because he is made in the image 
of God. He is thus greater than all the destruc- 
tive forces of nature, so far as continuance in 
being is concerned. His life is too large for him 
to confine, define or measure. " It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be." No man can tell what 
is the meaning of the slightest movements of the 
jelly fish that quivers in the sunlight when left 
upon the sand by the receding wave. How much 
less then can he guess the issues of his own im- 
mortal life. But God knows and in order to settle 
the greatest question of all existence He sent His 
only Son that all who believe in Him and shape 
their lives accordingly might live forever in the 
glory of eternal righteousness. It will take end- 



go The Message of To-Morrow 

less ages to fulfill all the promises of growth and 
enlargement which are written even in the weak- 
est human nature, and how much greater must 
be all that God has in store for those who love 
Him and are trying to obey His will. 

Man then has a right to life before the face of 
the Almighty because of what he may be to the 
Creator. The photograph has a right to exist 
and to have the care of the one it represents, be- 
cause it is the likeness of him who is to remain 
beyond the day and year and the passing life. The 
mirror has a right to exist because it will reflect 
at any moment the one who stands before it, thus 
fulfilling its mission. The child has a right to 
life and care and help in the family, because he 
is born in that family and has in him somewhere, 
somehow the likeness of his parents. Man the 
photograph of God, though very poor, the mirror 
into which the Infinite One may look and see, 
though dimly the outline of His own nature ; man 
the child of God, so like his heavenly Father, 
though only as a babe in the family of God, looks 
up and says, 

" I know that Thou wilt not turn aside the 
right of a man before the face of the Most High." 

II. Freedom of choice is the second right of 
a man before the face of the most 
High. 

This has its emphasis in the thirty-fourth verse 
of this chapter, when it is said, 



The Rights of a Man 91 

" The Lord approveth not to crush under His 
feet the prisoners of the earth." 

That is, man may exercise his right of choice 
even when he is a prisoner at the bar. The ac- 
cused in the court of London had done as he 
pleased. He had either broken or kept the law 
of the land. He could do either. As man stands 
before the Judgment bar of the ages, he is digni- 
fied with the same privilege of choosing for him- 
self what God loves or what God hates. 

There is not a single law relating to himself 
which man may not disobey, and there is not a 
law relating to himself which man may not by 
the help of God observe and keep. The earth and 
stars and suns and systems swing in their orbits 
through measureless space throughout the ages, 
never turning one hair's breadth from the com- 
mand of God. They can do no other. They are 
appointed to obey perfectly the perfect will of 
God. Hence there is no jar, no disturbance of 
any kind only the music of the spheres, as when 
the " Morning stars sang together and all the 
sons of men rejoiced together." But when God 
speaks to man and says, 

" Thou shalt," man may reply, 

" I will " or " I will not," as it may please him. 
And the " will not " is what brings trouble and 
disaster and death into the world. 

If a man chooses wrongly and goes on until 
he is confirmed in an evil state, he may have his 
way, and the Almighty can not prevent him from 



92 The Message of To-Morrow 

his doom. God did all He could when He sent 
His Son to die that men might live, and when He 
throws around the subject, every possible influ- 
ence for good. But in spite of all this man may 
oppose his will to God's and win; for God will 
not argue forever with any man. " My Spirit will 
not always strive with man." " Ephraim is joined 
to his idols, let him alone," is yet sounding down 
the ages. And when man comes up for judgment 
before the bar of God he will see the justice of 
all that God has done for it rested upon the free 
choice of man, as is shown in that blood red 
tragedy of the ages on Calvary when the thief on 
the cross reproved his companion, saying, 

" We suffer justly, but this man hath done 
nothing worthy of death." They had had their 
way and expected nothing except that which was 
given to them because of their choice. Even the 
Almighty can not save a man if he is not willing 
to be saved, for that would not be salvation. For 
salvation does not mean a mere change of locality 
as from earth to heaven, but rather a change of 
the inner condition of life to conform to the will 
and life of God. It is the will that brings about 
this change as it is the helm which turns the great 
ship away from the rocks and toward the safe 
haven. All who choose righteousness in Christ 
may realize the blessedness of the choice which 
is given us because God will not turn aside the 
right of choice before the face of the Most High. 



The Rights of a Man 93 



III. The appeal to justice is the third right 
of a man before the face of the most 
High. 

This is conceded in verse thirty-six which says, 

" The Lord approveth not to subvert a man in 
his cause." That is, he may have his case heard 
in the court and receive simple justice if he will. 
There are those who say, 

" I know God is just, therefore He will not 
condemn me." But if you depend on justice alone 
you will never escape. The murderer who comes 
before a court of justice and pleads for justice 
may think thus to escape. But the judge has ab- 
solute proof of his guilt, and therefore is com- 
pelled to pronounce sentence of death upon him, 
for justice requires the full penalty of the law. 

" I did not ask to have sentence pronounced," 
said the murderer, " I only asked for justice." 

"You are guilty," answers the judge (we are 
all guilty before God) " and justice demands pun- 
ishment to the full extent." 

So when men who deny God's right to their 
best service and have been all their lives against 
Him, cry out for justice they only ask for their 
punishment which is their doom. Only in mercy 
is there relief from the severe penalty of the law. 

There was Judge Shaw of Boston, who some 
years ago, with trembling lip and tear stained 
face, was compelled to pronounce sentence upon 
his friend Professor Webster for the murder of 



94 The Message of To-Morrow 

Dr. Parkman. Judge Shaw could do no other, 
for Professor Webster asked only for justice. If 
he had confessed his crime and asked for mercy 
it would no doubt have made a vast difference. 
No one has ever accused Judge Shaw of being 
unjust when he pronounced the sentence upon 
his friend. So those who hate God come up be- 
fore Him to ask for justice they will compel the 
Almighty to pronounce sentence, because they 
have chosen that course. And if ever God weeps 
and if ever His great nature is shaken with 
paroxysms of grief, it will be when He must pro- 
nounce sentence of banishment upon those who 
are made in His image, and who have had every 
advantage to lead a noble life in a Christian land 
and yet who have chosen rather to be forever 
away from God. These are they who cry only for 
justice and who have not given God any chance to 
show mercy. 

In all the ages, the justice of things has not 
gone beyond the prison and the scaffold. When 
Judge Shaw pronounced sentence upon Pro- 
fessor Webster he did not wipe out murder from 
the country. Justice still stands before every 
such offender to smite with iron hand as, long 
ago it smote upon the brow of Cain the first mur- 
derer. Courts and councils and armies have never 
changed the nature of things. 

" But," you say, " justice means reward for 
what has been done." 

" Certainly," says the judge, " it means reward 



The Rights of a Man 



95 



for the evil as well as the good. Now if you are 
estranged from God, away from His Church, 
seeking your own good, what reward do you ex- 
pect? This is good as far as it goes, but it does 
not go beyond the circle of your own life and will 
not count on the balance sheet of eternity. For 
these things you have all your reward here and 
now. You have not enlisted in the cause of your 
God, you have not attempted anything without 
the bargain for an immediate payment, and justice 
takes you at your word. 

" But I expect some reward." 

" No, no," answers justice, " if you had done 
anything for your God you would have done it 
in His way for that is the best and only way. 
My way is the way of sentence and doom, and 
not of mercy." So any man may claim the right 
of appeal to justice, for God will not turn aside 
the right of a man before the face of the Most 
High. 

IV. The appeal to mercy, is the fourth right 
of a man before the face of the most 
High. 

This is the universal note of harmony amid all 
discord, the one sweet strain which is bringing 
into unison all conflicts of earth that the soul 
may sing with joy the song of God. Listen, 

" He will have compassion according to the 
multitude of His tender mercies." Mercy led God 
to suffer in the person of His Son and thus to 



96 The Message of To-Morrow 

have compassion until the subject understands 
and accepts. For mercy is not merely help to the 
needy, else the lower order of animals would be 
the subjects of mercy. Mercy is help granted to 
the needy who hunger for the nature and love of 
God. 

Here are two men in prison. They both long 
to be free. One wishes to escape so as to do 
injury to those who placed him there and to com- 
mit other crimes. To free him would not be a 
mercy but rather an injustice to the man himself 
as well as to others. But the other longs to be 
free that he may live a noble life, and repair some 
of the wrong he has done, that he may work for 
his own family and yet reclaim his name from 
disgrace. To free him is a mercy and every man 
who has a shadow of this great quality in his soul, 
will say that it is a blessed thing that he can have 
his freedom for this great object of life. 

So when the great desire to be free from sin 
has also that longing to be more like God and 
also to bring others up to that state, God looks 
down in tenderness and will forgive anything in 
man that his great desire to live a righteous life 
may have a chance to be proved true. 

The soul struggles against great odds to be free. 
Most men love righteousness, and would gladly 
follow it, but the body with all its downward 
tendencies is such a poor servant. Here is a 
great man with a palsied hand. His mind ever 
active cries out to the hand to write the great 



The Rights of a Man 97 



thoughts which fill the soul. But the hand is 
helpless to act. The mind keeps calling, 

" O hand, can you not serve me? Can you not 
act for me that I may fulfill my mission ? " But 
the hand can not act. Then there comes along a 
great physician and seeing the struggle of the 
mind to do its work through the unwilling hand, 
takes pity on it and heals the hand. So the soul 
of man struggles against the sinful conditions and 
in vain appeals to the body and mind to help 
effectually. Then God in Christ, the great Physi- 
cian, looks down in pity and cures the sinful 
life, though it has deserved only condemnation ; 
and this is mercy. 

A little while ago we were at war with Spain. 
After one great battle the whole Spanish army in 
Cuba and a large part of their navy was taken 
prisoners and at once sent to their homes across 
the sea. Why were they thus kindly treated? 
This was not a custom of war. They were our 
enemies. It had cost much money and many 
lives to capture these soldiers. Why then were 
they sent home at the expense of this nation? It 
was because the great heart of this nation could 
not bear to see them suffer away from their coun- 
try and their homes. Their longings to go home, 
though not expressed, yet well known by this 
government was enough to lead to the great act 
of mercy. So they were sent home on condition 
that they would never again take up arms against 
this nation. And all Spain loved us for it. 



98 The Message of To-Morrow 

Before God we are all captives of war. He is 
watching with infinite solicitude for our willing- 
ness to be loyal and for the promise that we will 
never again take up arms against Him. Then 
His great heart will forgive us and send us home 
to our Father's house, and to a great reward, 
though we deserve it not. 

This right of man before the face of the Most 
High is the conferred right in Christ who by His 
own sacrifice has opened God's heart of pity. 

Not long ago Aguinaldo, the rebel chief of the 
Philippine Islands was at large and fighting 
against our nation. Long was the search for him 
and many were the soldiers of our army who 
were sacrificed until he was at last captured. 
When taken to Manila, into the presence of the 
United States authorities, was he at once be- 
headed as mere justice would indicate? By no 
means. He was then and there given the privi- 
lege of swearing allegiance to the United States 
and received all that might be granted to a citi- 
zen of this country. And this he accepted in 
place of banishment from his native island. 

Wondrous story of mercy this, that the nation 
should spend so much money, and sacrifice so 
many lives to catch the worst rebel, to bestow 
upon him pardon and the richest blessings. Yet 
this is only the story in faint outline of God's 
mercy to us. He has gone to infinite expense 
and the sacrifice of His only Son that we might 
be presented with the richest blessings of heaven. 



The Rights of a Man 



99 



He follows along the way of life nearly to the 
end, through the long and lonely years until we 
are captured far away. Then we have His favour 
and His love though we deserve only condem- 
nation. And this is the story of mercy in Christ. 

A man once had a dream that he was in a 
fierce wild storm. Near by were some houses to 
which he ran for shelter. At the door of the 
first stood a man with a stern countenance, who 
asked him who he was and what he would have, 
and then stated that that was the house of jus- 
tice, and that no traveller could expect comfort, 
but rather condemnation there. He ran to the 
next and was told that it was the house of truth, 
and as he had never loved truth he could not 
enter. At the third he could not be received be- 
cause it was the house of peace and they did not 
wish to be disturbed. But when he came to the 
fourth he learned at once that it was the house 
of mercy, whose door is ever open and where One 
in bright raiment with marks in His hands ever 
stood to receive all who might flee there for 
shelter. So he was received without question, 
without money and without price. 

The dream is a picture of man seeking and 
finding his greatest privilege, that of salvation 
through mercy in Christ, and which we may claim 
as a conferred right before the face of the Al- 
mighty, Most High. 
ILoK. 



VII 



THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS, OR HOW TO KEEP 
YOUNG 

"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy 
heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in 
the sight of thine eyes ; but know thou that for all 
these things God will bring thee into judgment." — 
Ecclesiastes u: o. 

" Rejoice, O young man ! " How easy to do, 
for there is no time so full of joy and happiness 
as youth. It is the living force of growth and 
progress which carries onward the throbbing life 
of the whole world. It urges the apprentice to 
his task, the business man to his office, the stu- 
dent to his books, and the whole world to tireless 
activity. Youth always sees before him the great, 
the good, the beautiful. His face is toward the 
sun and his shadow is behind him. His life is 
like the silent powerful oak which lifts and throws 
aside whatever may be upon it, as it rises from 
the acorn. The youth mounts upward and keeps 
ever climbing, always sure he sees the top, and 
is never in fear of falling. His prospects out- 
number the stars, his hopes are swifter than the 
winged lightning, and his faith can remove moun- 
tains. If one-tenth of his dreams came true, there 
ioo 



The Secret of Happiness 101 

would be poets everywhere, heroes would march 
along our streets in regiments, and discoverers 
would be as plentiful as the leaves on the trees, 
wealth could be supplied in packages like patent 
medicine, power would flow from fountains by 
the wayside, and greatness would be a drug on the 
market. With one hope realized in every ten, 
with one effort successful in every twenty, and 
with only half of his faith alive, youth rules the 
world, with absolute sway. 

Longfellow tells this beautiful story in the fol- 
lowing lines, 

" How beautiful is youth ! how bright it gleams 
With its illusions, aspirations 2 dreams ! 
Book of beginnings, Story without end, 
Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend ! 
Aladdin's Lamp, and Fortunatus' Purse, 
That hold the treasures of the universe! 
All possibilities are in its hands, 
No danger daunts it and no foe withstands; 
In the sublime audacity of faith, 
' Be thou removed,' it to the mountain saith, 
And with ambitious feet secure and proud, 
Ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud." 

That this desire for youthful happiness is im- 
mortal is proved by the universal effort of man to 
keep young ; by man's ceaseless effort in all the 
ages, to find the fountain of perpetual youth ; and 
by this command of God that we should make the 
rejoicing in righteousness strength, a life busi- 
ness. 



102 The Message of To- Morrow 

I. Making the most of developing life, is 

THE FIRST SECRET OF HAPPINESS. 

" Rejoice O young man in thy youth." This 
is God's benediction on growing life. It pleases 
God to see life increasing in greatness and holi- 
ness. He is the last being to suppress life, as 
He is the only one to create it. He protects the 
humblest flower by the wayside hidden in the 
grass, from the biting frost. He stays the force 
of the storm which fain would lay the forest 
low. He holds back the hand of decay from the 
dying grain of wheat that it may spring forth 
with new life in the harvest of summer. He drives 
back cruel fate from the door of the drunkard, 
and from the hut of the poor, and from the closely 
guarded cell of the criminal that life may live on 
and have a chance to become supreme. 

Yes He does more than that, He sends the 
bursting life of spring into every leaf and flower 
and twig and tree to cry out with joy for Him. 
He sends the birds with sweeter songs than Men- 
delssohn ever knew, to sing His chorus every- 
where. He opens the day with His banner of 
beauty in the clouds and flings its colours again 
across the sky at sundown, and everywhere it is 
rejoice, rejoice — all things rejoice. 

" Let all that hath breath praise the Lord." 

In human life God's provision for happiness is 
more complete. Man's powers and capabilities 
outnumber all those of all other created things. 

His intellect sweeps the heavens and the earth, 



The Secret of Happiness 103 



far and wide, his sensibilities feel the throb of 
all life, low and high, and his will rules all 
things with a relentless sway ; and God says, 

" Use all things wisely and well and rejoice 
O young man, in thy strength," which does not 
mean the young in years so much as the one full 
of moving, pulsating, powerful life. 

It is life that pushes and goes and loves and 
sings and wins. Life — strong life — is always re- 
joicing. Only death — the absence of life — brings 
sorrow. Every man therefore who fills himself 
full of life — God's life — will rejoice ; must 
rejoice. 

Does God then want a man to stop his work, 
to fill his lungs full of air in the morning and 
cry only — Halleluiah ! " 

O, No. When God says " rejoice O young man 
in thy youth," He means that we are to make the 
most of every power. We are to work as hard 
as we can, to fill the world full of righteousness. 
God is the happiest being in the universe, first 
because He is perfect; second because He does 
most for those in need. But in order to be happy 
God does not sit in the heavens and laugh and 
laugh as though He would shake the sky from its 
fastenings. But His nature rises in greatness and 
goodness and kindness and mercy, and these are 
the expressions of His joy. In imitation of Him 
we rise from the thought that life is to be one 
long holiday, and rejoice in our intellectual pow- 
ers, in our opportunities for improvement and ad- 



104 The Message of To-Morrow 



vancement, and in our highest possibilities before 
God. 

II. Heart cheer, is the second secret of hap- 
piness. 

" Let thy heart cheer thee," not thy neighbours 
or friends. It is well to know that the source of 
human happiness is the individual heart. Condi- 
tions of climate and weather are not half so im- 
portant as the condition of the inner life. The 
good cheer of the heart is infinitely better than 
the sunshine or balmy air of spring. 

Lately some strange experiments have been 
made in this country at a school for the study of 
the mind. A man in pleasant mood breathed into 
a glass tube prepared for the purpose and packed 
in ice, and then the iodide of rhodopsin was used 
to precipitate any deposit, but there was no re- 
sult. Then a man when very angry was made to 
breathe into the same tube and the same test was 
applied, and the result was a brown precipitate. 
Then a man in deep sorrow was subjected to the 
same test and the result was gray; then one in 
remorse and the result was pink. In each special 
case the heart sent out some kind of a reporter 
to tell the story of this life. This is being done 
in a thousand other ways every day. Somehow 
man's inner condition has great effect on his 
happiness or misery. You go to a physician for 
a physical examination. After it is all over the 
physician says, 



The Secret of Happiness 105 

"Your heart has a double leak and a flutter." 
At once you are affected and for days and weeks 
you seem to be carrying around a great and op- 
pressive load. You are sicker now than you were, 
because you know that life is in danger. 

When we have an examination of our whole 
nature and find defects we are sadly depressed. 
But where we find excellencies, great and marvel- 
lous, possibilities of achievements surpassing our 
highest hopes, then we are happy, and the heart 
cheers us, and we rejoice in our strength. 

Life is like the old feudal castle and its people. 
It is guarded carefully to see that only friends 
come and go. The happiness is from within, 
the inner life cheers the inmates. No traitor is 
there but all are in full sympathy. All may well 
say: 

* Let our home life cheer us for there shall be 
no such traitor as anger to go out to spread an 
evil report, but he shall be kept in chains." There 
shall be no resentment or revenge escaping to 
tell its " rhodopsin " story of conflict within. But 
there shall go out and come in only those who 
shall bring good cheer. 

How essential then that the heart should be 
right with God, controlled by divine impulse and 
filled with divine wisdom, as the source of the 
fountain should be pure. Though the face may 
smile at times, that will not change the conditions 
of life any more than a new coat will make a 
beggar a rich man. It is rather the heart that 



io6 The Message of To-Morrow 



controls the face and features and hands, and 
whole man. 

" Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of 
it are the issues of life." 

God is the only one who can satisfy every con- 
dition of life. This means to obey God, to bow 
to His will, to have life in harmony with His, 
for the heart, which in this case is the sum total 
of a man's power, is the engine of life to run the 
man to ruin or to safety. It is like the fires 
in the furnaces of the ocean steamship. If they 
burn within their limits, controlled and used, they 
are the source of strength which baffles and de- 
fies every wind and every storm, and the passen- 
gers are cheered. But let the fires once break 
out and burn the ship, then sorrow and disaster 
and death will follow. Keep thy heart with all 
diligence and let it cheer thee on thy journey, 
defying trouble and sorrow and even death. Yes 
the heart should be right with God and then it 
will always supply your nature with good cheer. 

Many there are who think that the source of 
happiness is from without — that all things must 
flow to themselves before they can be happy. 
Did you ever know a spring in the mountain to 
be fresh and sparkling when all streams and riv- 
ulets pure and impure flowed into it? Could a 
spring in that way fulfill its mission? Did you 
ever know T any person to become happy and good 
by grasping all within his reach, and by getting 
all he wanted, giving nothing to others ? No, no, 



The Secret of Happiness 



107 



the secret of purity and happiness of life is in its 
flow, like the spring sending forth its stream, 
sparkling, dancing, laughing, liquid clear, because 
it was purified in the heart of the mountain. 

" Let thy heart with its liquid flow, cheer thee, 
O mountain," says God, " and then thy verdure 
shall break forth into new life." So the fountain 
of perpetual youth is in the heart, though its 
source is in God. Its flow is that of goodness 
and righteousness and honesty and Godlikeness. 
" Let thy heart cheer thee," for therein lies the 
secret of happiness. 

III. TO WALK IN THE LIGHT OF THINE EYES, IS 
THE THIRD GREAT SECRET OF HAPPINESS. 

Learning to walk ! Yes but you have forgotten 
how that went; how you misjudged distance, and 
reaching for a chair you came short of it and fell 
with painful result. Your mother came to your 
rescue, and as she gathered you up said, 

" Look my child where you are going. Use 
your eyes." " Walk in the light of thine eyes." 
When we stumble and fall it is chiefly because 
we do not walk in the light of our eyes. God 
has given to everyone light enough in the outer 
world, so that no one need stumble. The civil 
law makes but little allowance for the man who 
has lived all his life in this country and then 
breaks the best known and simplest laws. The 
court answers to such a plea, 

" It is your business to know." So God has 



108 The Message of To-Morrow 

given to every man knowledge enough for an 
upright life, and no man need ever go blundering 
along in the moral world. God's Word is to en- 
lighten him, the promises are for every condition, 
the rewards for every good deed, the crown for 
every conquest. The Church is God's divinely 
appointed means to enlighten those who do not 
see. It is a lighthouse to the seaman, a star of 
hope to the mariner, a beacon light to every trav- 
eller. Follow this light, " keep thine eyes straight 
before thee," " walk in the light of thine eyes " 
and you will find the great secret of the happi- 
ness of youth. 

But we should also keep ourselves before our 
eyes. Those we like least to look upon, are our- 
selves. Of course the mirror is attractive to some, 
but only so long as it reflects youth and beauty. 
In ancient Rome a fair lady who loved her mirror, 
thought one day that it revealed the signs of age. 
At once she smashed it into a thousand pieces. 
She could not look upon herself in the light of 
her eyes. This act of the noble lady was con- 
sidered a license by others for the same act and 
the truthful mirrors fast disappeared. Then in 
order to save the poor victims it was reported that 
to break a mirror is bad luck. So now they re- 
ceive sharp looks instead of sharp blows. 

But the look that is here intended, is deeper 
and keener than any that enters a mirror. It is 
an X ray photograph one that looks through and 
through, and sees all. 



The Secret of Happiness 109 

It is called X ray because X is always, in 
mathematics, taken to represent the unknown 
quantity, something the eye can not see. When 
you go to a photographer to have your picture 
taken you know about what the picture should 
be. But who knows what the X ray will reveal. 
Walk in the light of thine eyes which look 
through and through and criticise and correct. 
If we were severe critics of ourselves we would 
be less severely judged by others. 

" Know thyself," cried the philosophers. " Walk 
in the light of thine eyes," says God. When you 
go up and down the street watch yourself. When 
dishonesty sits by you to plan a dark deed watch 
yourself. When temptation walks by your side, 
taking your arm to lead you to do the wrong act, 
keep your eyes on yourself and see how you look ; 
then get your hand on yourself and by all the 
power you have, bring yourself back again. 

Walk in the light of thine eyes, then you will 
be fit to walk in the light of God. 

IV. Judgment is the fourth secret of happi- 
ness. 

What has judgment to do with happiness — 
everything. To be under crime is worse than to 
be under sentence; hence judgment becomes a 
mercy. The penitent before God is always ac- 
quitted, hence his happiness. Now each act is 
judged singly, and if a man is trying to do right 
and sins, God is more lenient. He who plans 



no The Message of To-Morrow 

to do wrong and does it will be treated one way. 
He who plans to do right and does it will be 
treated in quite another way. 

Some leave all accounts to be settled at last 
for a final summing up. Others settle their ac- 
counts as they go along, by watching their lives, 
by asking forgiveness and finding it granted. In 
this case the final judgment will be the summing 
up of the good that has been brought along with 
life. 

How have we used this life of His, loaned to us 
for our profit and enjoyment? 

Have you walked in the light of your eyes, or 
have you been cross-eyed to the truth seeing 
double and not willing to accept either? Have 
the eyes been closed? Has the heart, the right- 
eous life been made the source of your rejoicing 
or has the heart poured forth a turbid stream to 
darken the world? 

" Into judgment," that our standing may be 
established forever, and especially how much we 
are to Him. Has the fire of the heart consumed 
the life or has it warmed the whole nature, cheered 
the life and brought the soul up to God? 

" For all of these things God will bring thee 
into judgment," and may the divine word be to 
thee, 

" Well done thou good and faithful servant, 
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." This is 
the divine way to come into the happy, the age- 
less life. 



VIII 



THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 

" Christ . . . who was not made after the law of 
a carnal commandment, but after the power of an end- 
less life. — Hebrews 7: 16 

If you stand upon the Eiffel tower in Paris, 
one thousand feet above the ground, and look 
out over the city and country, you will observe 
that all streets and roads and marks of property 
ownership have disappeared, while fields, forests 
and gardens are blended into one continuous land- 
scape. You are too high to be bound by the con- 
ditions of life upon the surface of the earth. 

So in this text we are lifted high into the at- 
mosphere of eternity, where time and earthly 
conditions disappear, and where there is one great 
broad sweep of eternal things. 

The Bible itself has no chronology of dates; 
that has been supplied in the margin by man for 
his own convenience. The chronology of the 
Bible is that of events, which sweeps along with- 
out waiting to plant milestones or set up land 
marks as though expecting to return again. And 
this chapter has reached the highest point of all, 
for it brings forth Melchisedec, who defies time 
in 



112 The Message of To-Morrow 

and breaks all dates into fragments ; for it is said 
that he was without father or mother or uncles or 
aunts, — that is he had no recorded history of his 
descent, — hence he was " without beginning of 
days or end of time." By this it is not meant 
that he was not born and did not die, as is the 
case with others ; but it did mean that the record 
of his life was not kept as usual in those days 
among the Jews, and that the loss of his earthly 
history was of small consequence in the presence 
of the eternal life of the soul whose record was 
not lost. 

Still higher are we carried in this story to the 
One whom Melchisedec typifies, that is, the Christ 
who is both sacrifice and example and so stands 
at the highest point of all life, for He was not 
made after the law of a carnal commandment, 
but after the power of an endless life. 

Here then is the great contrast between tem- 
poral and eternal life, between temporal and eter- 
nal power. The body lives thirty, forty, seventy 
years ; but who can tell the life of the soul ? Set 
a bound to eternity, then you can tell of eternal 
life. But eternity, — who can measure it? It is 
a boundless ocean upon which time floats for a 
little like a bubble, then bursts, and is gone. 

It is said that if you could connect all the or- 
bits of all the stars and suns and systems, into 
one measureless path, then if you could combine 
all the planets and stars and suns and systems 
into one great globe, that the swing of this great 



The Power of an Endless Life 113 

body in its measureless orbit would be only as the 
swing of the pendulum in the life of the soul. 

It is said that if a bird of long life were to 
come from beyond the confines of this earth and 
take just one grain of dust, then fly away and 
wait a million years, then come for one more 
grain of dust and fly away with that, then wait 
another million years, then come for another grain 
of dust, and so coming for just one grain once in 
every million years till all the earth and all the 
planets and all the stars and all the systems are 
removed, that then the soul would just be in its 
infancy and eternity would just be begun. 

" Eternity where ? It floats on the air, 
Mid clamour and silence it always is there, 
That question so solemn 
Eternity where ? " 

Now this is represented in the life of Christ 
as a power, for He was not made after the law of 
a carnal commandment, but after the power of an 
endless life. That is, Christ's life was measured 
with eternity and was found to be greater than 
eternity. This then is to be the measure of man's 
existence — the power of an endless life. 

Now, power is the commonest thing in the 
world. You find it in earth, air, sea and sky, 
and in the heart and hand of man. Mr. Tyndall 
once said, that if all the power of chemical affin- 
ity held in a single drop of water could be properly 
utilized, that it would run a train of cars as far 



ii4 The Message of To-Morrow 

as from Edinburg to London, a distance of about 
four hundred miles. One of the greatest preach- 
ers of this age, said some time ago, that if all 
the power of every Christian could be utilized, 
the world would be brought to Christ in a single 
day. If this be true, what a great waste of power 
and strength there has been in all the ages, for 
the Gospel of Christ seems in many ways to have 
little more than a start. It is in developing hu- 
man agency that the power of an endless life is 
to be shown. 

The reason why steam so long slumbered in 
the water, is that man's power was not large 
enough to bring it out. 

The reason the world was so long silent and 
unneighbourly is that man did not for ages grasp 
the power of electricity, to make it carry his mes- 
sage. 

Now, if man finds it so hard to deal with these 
questions of everyday life, how can he expect to 
grapple with the great questions of eternity? To 
answer this great need of man, who is made after 
the law of a carnal commandment, there has come 
the Christ of God, who was made after the power 
of an endless life. He is not only a fulfillment 
but also a revelation, hence, 

I. The power of an endless life, reveals life. 

Here is a person, the Christ, who outmeasures 
all questions of time and eternity, and our lives 
are to take on a suitable measure of that power. 



The Power of an Endless Life 115 



It is a most gracious revelation in the midst of 
life's mysterious existence; for we came into 
the world in the mystery of life, we walk in the 
mystery of being, we go out in the mystery of 
death. We put our feet in the tracks of old 
Nicodemus and push along, if need be in the 
night, that we may come to Him who knows 
all the mysteries of eternity, and ask, 

" How can these things be ? " And we never 
go away disappointed, if we hear Him through, 
for He has the revelation of the endless life. 

Like the centurion we disregard our standing 
and endanger our position by which we gain our 
living — and position has ever been considered of 
prime importance, — that we may help the needy. 
This is a new phase of human action and has its 
issue far beyond this mortal life. 

It was a new revelation in the life of Paul that 
led him to throw away earth's brightest prospects, 
for something that seemed to all men shadowy 
and uncertain, and which led away from the great 
Sanhedrim and the pinnacle of fame, to suffer- 
ing and death. The reason is that he had had a 
view of this larger and fuller life, and counted 
it better than all earth's treasures. The reason 
why we are discouraged is because we see life 
only in sections, and most of us are near sighted 
at that. But when we can see life in relation to 
eternity, how different! If we who are Chris- 
tians could see the whole plan of our lives with 
the glorious ending, we would never have a mo- 



n6 The Message of To-Morrow 

ment of doubt or discouragement. If the soldiers 
of Washington's army had seen the result of the 
War of Revolution from the beginning, — if they 
could have looked down one hundred years and 
could have seen the glories of war and of peace 
of our own day, then Bunker Hill and Valley 
Forge and Yorktown would not have filled their 
hearts with solicitude. Why could Isaiah go on 
with so much assurance? Open his own word, 
uncover with him the future and you will see 
that he had linked his life with Him who was 
not made after the law of a carnal commandment, 
but after the power of an endless life. You 
never would have heard of Isaiah, and of Daniel, 
and of ten thousand others but for this. You will 
never cease to hear of them because of the power 
of the endless life. 

We were about twenty-five minutes in the St. 
Gothard's tunnel in the Alps. During that time 
no ray of light came from the sun though he was 
shining in all his strength. It is one of the long- 
est and darkest tunnels in the world, yet by the 
lights in the train we saw some of the brightest 
faces and heard some of the j oiliest laughs that 
were ever seen or heard. This was not because 
of the darkness of the tunnel, but because of the 
bright sun that we knew was shining on the outer 
world, and because the most beautiful flowers 
and the most delightful perfumes would soon 
greet us, and the coolest zephyrs would blow 
and the highest mountains would lift their heads 



The Power of an Endless Life 117 

far toward the sky as though to say, " We must 
be near our God." It was a revelation to me 
of the way the darkness of this earth may be made 
light by the power of an endless life. 

That which widened the circle of Paul's life 
beyond Palestine threw it out also beyond the 
horizon of man's vision and gave him sights which 
were unutterable and full of glory. 

That which makes you open your account book 
for to-morrow, also commands you to open your 
Bible for the future ; the one that you may see 
how your accounts stand for this world, the other 
that you may see how they stand for eternity. 
Man lives mostly in the future; the beast lives 
altogether in the present. You do not tell your 
horse or your dog or your canary bird anything 
about to-morrow or next week or next year, be- 
cause they can not understand. But God talks 
to us mostly about the future. If you take the 
future tenses out of the Bible it will be no longer 
the word of God for you will have taken the best 
part of it away ; for the Bible would have you to 
live largely in the presence of prophecy and 
promise and hope. It is the power of an endless 
life coming out and taking hold of us as with 
invisible hands and drawing us into larger life 
with God. 

There is somewhere a story which tells how 
the knowledge of eternal life began to dawn upon 
the earth, and how the power of the future first 
took hold of man. A great colony of the de- 



1 1 8 The Message of To-Morrow 

scendants of Cain, the first murderer, had gathered 
in their happy life, for the knowledge of death 
had not yet come to them. Cain knew well what 
death was, but he kept the burning secret to him- 
self. One day a hurled stone struck down a 
son of Lamech. They thought he was asleep, so 
they brought to him his childish toys to wake him 
from his slumber. But no stillness like that had 
ever come to any one of them. As they stood 
in wonder, Cain came forward and whispered, 

" He is dead," and told the awestruck family 
of death and future life. 

A new feeling from that moment came over 
the house of Cain. All things assumed new mean- 
ing. Even the sunshine had a different look to 
them. 

" It seemed that light was never loved before, 
Now each man said, ' 'Twill go and come no more ' ; 
No budding branch, no pebble from the brook, 
No form, no shadow, but new meaning took, 
From the one thought that life will have an end." 

How beautiful ! Yet how much more beauti- 
ful the Christ who was made after the power of 
eternal life, and through whom we never die. 

" I will show you all the glory of Greece," said 
an ancient to his friend. Then he took him to 
Solon the Spartan lawgiver. 

" Is this all ? " asked the other. 

" Yes, this is all, for when you have seen Solon 
you have seen all the glory of Greece." 



The Power of an Endless Life 119 



So I will show you all the glory of your im- 
mortality by pointing you to Him who was not 
born according to the law of a carnal command- 
ment but after the power of an endless life. 

" Thou O Christ art all I want, 
More than all in Thee I find." 

II. The power of an endless life explains 

LIFE. 

It was long a mystery how suffering could help 
suffering and how sorrow could be borne away 
by one in sorrow, and how the crucified Nazarene 
could inspire a despondent world with hope and 

joy- 
There are men foolish enough to laugh at this, 
and to say that it can not be done. They may 
be laughing now, though we can not hear them, 
for small sounds do not easily disturb the air of 
this sacred place. And if we should hear them we 
would not need to fear until their laugh shakes 
the earth more than did the events of that tragic 
day on Calvary. 

How can they explain that this little Book, the 
Bible, which a child may easily carry in his hand, 
can be the basis of all lasting learning and litera- 
ture; how it will lead men out of suffering and 
sin and will set a going powers that will never 
die, and which will sweep across the world with 
mightier force than storm of wind and hail. 

Now we understand that it is life, and not 
years that makes the difference. An old negro 



120 The Message of To-Morrow 

sixty-three years of age in Baltimore took his 
boy, ten years of age, to school. After the son 
had been received, he asked, 

" How old must one be to enter school ? " They 
replied that they would take them at any age. 
Then he said he would enter too. There was 
something in that man greater than the mere 
cycles of time, and more eternal than the dates on 
the calendar. Yes it is the power of an endless 
life that scorns the marking of years and laughs 
at the wrinkles of time. The youth of sixty out- 
runs and leaves behind the old man of twenty, 
and passing him by, scorns his laggard pace. 
For some are younger at sixty than others are 
at twenty. It is not cycles of suns but sin that 
makes man old. It is the Christ of endless life 
that comes into every needy soul, that shines in 
every beclouded face, that spreads His wings of 
hope over the grave of every believer. 

Now we know why it is better to keep God's 
commandments than to break them, because they 
have their issue in the endless life. Now we can 
understand why King Canute could not lash 
back the sea. It is because these things which 
are beyond his control are in the hand of that 
One who never slumbers or sleeps. Now we 
see why Pilate could not release or condemn 
Christ at will. It was because he was only a 
factor and not supreme in the events which had 
their issue in eternal life. Now we can under- 
stand why the sun and moon stood still till Joshua 



The Power of an Endless Life 121 

finished his battle. It was because the events 
of that day were closely connected with eternal 
things, which were more important than the mere 
going of the earth in its course. Now we can 
understand why Daniel was not devoured by the 
lions, and why Joseph was not killed by Poti- 
phar. It was because they were only actors in a 
great plan which God was working out for all. 

Now we know why the scar in the hand will 
never rub out and can never wear out. The flesh 
will never give up its mark, though all the 
particles about it may change entirely, two, three, 
or four times. There is a something that keeps 
it there, and that something must have to do with 
immortality. The soul has been wounded and 
can not give up the mark. Sin scars the heart 
as the knife scars the hand. 

Now we understand, too, why God bears with 
us so long while we may remain in sin. It is so 
that we may come to Him in righteousness and 
have the eternal reward; for He says in verse 
twenty-five of this chapter, 

" Wherefore He is able also to save to the utter- 
most all who come to God by Him, seeing He 
ever liveth to make intercession for us." He ever 
liveth, therefore He will ever plead our cause. 

" That is a worthless tree," says God, " cut it 
down why cumbereth it the ground ? " 

" No," says Christ, " let it remain this year 
also and I will tend it carefully, and if it will not 
bear fruit with the best of care then cut it down." 



122 The Message of To-Morrow 

Even God has not the patience to endure fruit- 
lessness so long, but Christ is willing and able to 
wait, for that is His mission, for He was not made 
after the law of a carnal commandment, but after 
the power of an endless life. 

III. The power of an endless life, rewards 

LIFE. 

It is man's nature to believe that there will be 
a reward for every venture. The Hellenic story 
told of the Elysian fields ; the people shivering in 
the Arctic cold look forward to their Walhalla; 
the Indian to his happy Hunting ground ; the Jew, 
to his Paradise ; and the Christian to his Heaven. 
Every cause has its effect, every sequence its 
consequence, every promise its reward. But 
every one knows that all rewards are not given 
now. Where is the man who at once gets his 
full reward for business honesty, on account of 
which his competitor has taken great advantage. 
Men laugh at him for passing by the chance to 
make a fortune quickly through dishonesty. He 
gets his reward, not in this life, for he has waited 
long for it, but rather in some land where ac- 
counts are balanced with perfect accuracy, by an 
accountant who never errs. 

Where in this life will the poor mothers get 
their rewards, — those whose lives are one 
constant sacrifice — almost a burnt offering — 
for the boy who spends his own life as well 
as hers, as though life were a thing only to be 



The Power of an Endless Life 123 

wasted as quickly as possible, and who never says, 
"thank you/' to her for anything? Nowhere 
here do they get their reward, for they die in 
poverty and suffering for their boys. There must 
be a reward for them somewhere. If there is no 
other argument in authority of Holy Writ, or in 
human mind for a heaven, this is enough. The 
power of the endless life bridges over the places 
of suffering and sorrow to the shining portal in 
the hill of God. 

God does not pay us off as we go, and it is 
well that He does not, else He would be done 
with us. To be sure He does pay off many, that 
is, those who, though they defy His law and His 
will and His word, love the best of all that is to 
be had on earth. Of this class Christ said long 
ago. 

" Verily I say unto you, they have their 
reward." 

But for most of us God holds back the great 
reward, as a father holds back the estate until his 
son is of age, and knows how to use it well to his 
own good. Whoever gives a cup of cold water 
in the name of Christ shall not lose his reward. 
He does not say when the reward will come, in 
this world or the next, but it will come, for 
it is promised by Him who was not born after 
the law of a carnal commandment, but after the 
power of an endless life. 

Our life lies mostly in the future, where re- 
wards are sure, and it is in the future that God 



124 The Message of To-Morrow 



will fully reward us according to the deeds done 
in the body. 

It is the old story of Eden renewed, that every 
tree shall bear fruit after its kind. The grape- 
vine need not go to the book of botany to learn 
that it will bear grapes ; it just goes on according 
to its nature and brings its own fruit. 

The fig tree does not ask the wind or air or 
sun if it may bear figs. It must bear them, and 
the future harvest of the figs is as sure as the 
growth and life of the tree. Every tree shall, 
(it has no choice, it must out of its very nature) 
bear fruit after its kind. And this is only an 
example of eternal things, when every life and 
every action shall produce its own harvest, both 
for to-morrow, for next week and for eternity. 
No one shall live and not see this law fulfilled. 
Thus we may judge of the reward that shall come 
to us. We may have again the blessings of Eden, 
and see the fulfillment of God's promise more 
gloriously than ever Paul or John saw them ful- 
filled, for the revelation is of this life and the 
next, and is made by Him who was born, not 
according to the law of a carnal commandment, 
but after the power of an endless life. 

" One law for now and the future, 
One light on the distant and near, 
The bliss of the boundless hereafter 
Pulses in the brief moment here. 



The Power of an Endless Life 

" Life dawns on us, wakes us by glimpses, 
In heaven there is opened a door, 
The light flashes out through earth's vistas 
The dead are the living once more. 

" To illumine the scroll of creation, 
One swift, sudden vision sufficed, 
Every riddle in life, worth the reading 
Has found its interpreter, Christ." 



IX 



THE PEACE OF GOD 

" The peace of God which passeth all understanding, 
shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." — 
Philip pians 4: 7. 

How could Paul the homeless, hunted, perse- 
cuted old warrior of the New Testament offer 
peace to anyone? How dare he to use the word 
peace forty-two times in his writings while all the 
rest of the writers of the New Testament only 
used the word forty-seven times, five times more 
than he? 

Where did he, the seemingly troubled one, find 
peace? Did he find it in the Old Testament, 
where the word occurs about one hundred and 
seventy-five times? No, for if he had he would 
have possessed peace before he had the vision on 
the way to Damascus. 

Did he learn it from Peter or any of the other 
disciples? No, for he was too independent for 
that. He must have it in an authority which will 
perfectly satisfy. And this he could find only in 
the nature of God. 

I. The peace of God. 

This is different from any other peace, as God 
is different from any other being. And peace, 
126 



The Peace of God 127 



in its final analysis is harmony with God, whose 
nature is sufficient to satisfy every one. The only 
way that Spain could have peace, a few years 
ago, was to come into harmony with the will of 
the United States, even though she had to be 
driven to it. She tried to find peace by way of 
her army and navy, and in the politics of Europe, 
at the capitals of the various nations, and in her 
own statesmanship. But in these she failed, and 
had to learn that the price of peace was surrender 
to the great nation which she opposed. 

To know that the one who is Almighty is our 
friend, to know that He is the one whom we have 
wronged and offended, and that He has forgiven 
us, and will protect us at every turn, to know that 
" all things work together for good to them that 
love God and to them that are called according 
to His purpose," to know that out of every wrong 
shall come right, and out of every sorrow shall 
come joy, and out of every loss shall come gain, 
and out of every defeat shall come victory to the 
Christian, — this is the peace of God, for only His 
great nature can compass all of these. 

The only true peace that the little child can find 
is with its mother where there is boundless love 
to cover all its little needs. 

The fish finds peace and comfort, not upon the 
shore away from the water of the sea, nor yet 
near the shore where the waves lash and dash, nor 
yet at the surface of the sea where the waves are 
constant, but far down in the depths of the ocean, 



128 The Message of To- Morrow 

away from agitation and disturbance, there the 
fish finds peace. 

So when we know the great generous nature 
of God deep and abiding like the fathomless sea, 
we do not find the disturbances of life, but rather 
Him in whom all may find rest, for His nature 
gives us the deep and abiding peace. 

" For in the time of trouble He shall hide me 
in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle 
shall He hide me." 

He who sails the ocean without regard to the 
laws of winds, and tides, and storms and stars; 
and he who goes through this world without re- 
gard to the nature and name of God will not only 
fail, but will meet the storms that will last until 
he turns to the haven of rest in God. 

In the Old Testament God stood forth as en- 
compassing all things and said, 

" I am that I am." 

More awful to the Jews than any or all other 
things was the name and nature of God, so that 
when they read of Him in His own word they 
passed over His great name Jehovah, in silent 
awe. 

So all nature rests in Him. There is the fath- 
omless sea filled with untold riches bearing health 
to all, carrying gently those who would go from 
land to land, and ever sounding the perfect 
rhythm of the ages; and all this is sustained by 
that One in whose nature we securely rest. 

There is the landscape covered with fruits and 



The Peace of God 129 

flowers and waving grain, and whose horizon 
ever flees before you as you travel from place 
to place, while riches are strewn over mountains 
and valleys, and all these rest in the hand of the 
Almighty. 

There is the boundless expanse of space filled 
with system upon system of worlds like a shining 
stairway to the everlasting home of the blessed. 
And God sustains all these by His own unerring 
will. High above all things God sits sublimer 
than the mountains, grander than kings, nobler 
than all earthly lords, truer than parents, more 
loving than lovers ; and everywhere and over all 
He is supreme. To rest in His presence — that 
is peace — the peace of His infinite nature. 

" How great a Being, Lord is Thine 
That doth all beings keep, 
Thy knowledge is the only line 
To sound so vast a deep. 

" Thou art a sea without a shore, 
A sun without a sphere, 
Thy time is now and evermore 
Thy place is everywhere. 

" Who should not fear Thy search'ing eyes 
Witness to all that's true, 
Dark hell and deep hypocrisy 
Lie plain before Thy view. 

" Motions and thoughts before they grow 
Thy knowledge doth espy, 
What unborn ages yet to be, 
Is done before thine eye." 



130 The Message of To-Morrow 



II. This peace passeth all understanding. 

Paul's definition of the peace of God is in per- 
fect keeping with God's nature, for he confesses 
that it can not be defined. It " passeth all under- 
standing." No mortal was so well prepared as 
was Paul to describe this peace. Had he not 
rested in it again and again, from his great trials 
and persecutions? Had he not seen heavenly 
visions surpassing any except perhaps those of 
John ? Yet he says it can not be understood much 
less defined. 

The peace of God passeth all understanding 
because it is linked with God's redemption of 
man. Who can understand why " God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish 
but have everlasting life? " 

How can the little child understand the great 
act of his mother who saves him from the flames, 
though she herself is burned? Then who can 
understand the infinitely greater act of Christ in 
coming to a sinful world and dying to bring peace 
and joy to the human heart. No wonder Paul 
says it passeth understanding. 

That Christ should stoop to save any one seems 
strange, but that He should select some old hard- 
ened, profane, leprous sinner, whom all men de- 
spise and shun, and then say that He will save 
all such, who will believe, for He says He will 
"Save to the uttermost all who will come to God 
by Him," seems doubly strange. 



The Peace of God 



It is as though a king were to find the most 
squalid hovel in his realm, one that had in it, 
malaria, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, yellow fever, 
diphtheria, small pox and consumption, and had 
never been purified, and take that as his dwelling 
place. Then, it is as though his very presence, 
his heroic sacrifice, for though he dies, he lives 
again, puts disease to flight, and he bears in 
himself the power of all of these, yet not their 
guilt and pollution ; till malaria sneaks away into 
the swamps, and typhoid fever crawls out with its 
slow, sluggish step, and scarlet fever runs with 
its red flag, and small pox takes away even its 
foot prints from the face until all are gone. Can 
you understand this? No, you will sooner test 
the value of the famous painting, the Angelus, 
by weight upon the scales, or buy St. Peter's 
Cathedral at Rome, by the cubic foot, or count 
the drops of water in the sea, or tell off the sun- 
beams by the yard. No, we can not now under- 
stand the full meaning of the peace of God. 

After the surrender of the Spanish army at 
Santiago, General Toral sent messengers to the 
soldiers in the smaller towns to tell them that 
they were included in the surrender, and that they 
were to be sent home to Spain, by the enemy, the 
United States. But the soldiers would not believe 
until they sent to see if the good news was really 
true. It passed their understanding, and no won- 
der, for such a thing had never happened in all 
the history of the jvorld. ; 



132 The Message of To-Morrow 



Yes, Paul was right, for we can not under- 
stand the peace of God, yet we may enjoy its 
power, as we may enjoy the Angelus, St. Peter's, 
the flashing sunbeams, and ten thousand other 
things which we may not fully understand, and 
which come as great gifts from God. The peace 
of God which passeth all understanding is through 
the great gift of His Son. 

" Peace, peace, sweet peace, 

Wonderful gift from above, 
O wonderful, wonderful peace 

Sweet peace, the gift of God's love." 

III. Shall keep your hearts and minds in 
Christ Jesus. 

It is the picture of a military guard, with picket 
line all around and the strength and power of an 
army to protect. 

When the Spanish army at Santiago surren- 
dered to the United States forces, the latter at 
once became the guards of the former. Those 
who were enemies a little while before, were then 
in perfect safety because kept by the power to 
whom they had surrendered. Now the American 
soldier, who a while ago might have been killed 
by the Spaniard, will give his life, if need be, 
for that very enemy, and the Cubans who tried 
to kill and rob the soldiers of Spain were driven 
away by the sentinels of the United States army 
who were keeping the army of Spain in perfect 



The Peace of God 133 



peace. Let any one attack those who have sur- 
rendered to the American army, and the whole 
power of the nation may be had as a protection. 

So while we are enemies to God, He is against 
us, and we have fear and agitation and war. We 
are troubled and tried and defeated to show us 
that we need the eternal guard to keep our hearts 
and minds. 

But when we come and give to Him our hearts 
and lives, then He keeps us from dangers and 
defeats and even from the wearing power of fear. 
All the forces of heaven, and all the power of the 
Almighty, that may be necessary, will come to 
our help and will keep our hearts and minds in 
Christ Jesus. 

Why is it, that there are no walls around New 
York, Philadelphia, Chicago and all other cities 
of the land? It is because peace stands guard 
and no enemy shall dare to pass that divinely ap- 
pointed sentinel. Why was it that the heaviest 
walls, one beyond another of Peking, the great- 
est walled city in the world, were no match for 
the allied forces a little while ago? It was be- 
cause this peace of God was not there. Not only 
were their hearts and minds not guarded, but 
their homes and lives found no safety until they 
surrendered to their enemy who proved to be their 
best friend. So the best protection of earth can 
not compare with this one great power which we 
receive when we are obedient to Him who gives 



134 The Message of To-Morrow 



us the peace which passeth all understanding and 
which shall keep our hearts and minds in Christ 
Jesus. 

While sitting on the deck of an Atlantic 
steamer, far out at sea, we suddenly saw the sea 
grow calm within a circle of swirling water. All 
outside, was clash and lash of wave. Three times 
did the great ship go round and round, like some 
huge beast grinding at the mill. Then some one 
said, 

" See there, the ship is describing a circle, what 
does that mean ? " Then another said, 

" It must be that one pair of engines is disabled 
and the ship is beyond control." So all was con- 
fusion for a time, and still the ship went round 
and round. Then one came from the captain and 
said with cheerful voice, 

" They are only proving the compass." So 
instead of anything being wrong as we feared, 
all things were being proved right. 

So, God in His infinite might seems to be a 
great mystery to us. We become confused and 
think that all is going to ruin. But when we look 
again we see that all within the charmed circle 
is growing calm and we hear the voice from our 
great Captain saying that all is well. 

There is just one measure of your security at 
sea, and that is not the bolts and masts and bars 
of the ship, but it is the captain's face. I have 
several times in a heavy sea and in the storm gone 
out, holding tightly to the ship, lest I might be 



The Peace of God 135 



swept away, and watched the captain's face. The 
ship seemed entirely in the hands of the giant 
ocean. We would be lifted high toward the sky 
and then as by a mighty force we were hurled 
down, as though to strike the jagged rocks be- 
neath. But there stood the captain at his post 
unmoved. Then the sea would come running 
from either side as though with one mighty effort 
to dash the ship in pieces, strike with terrific force, 
and for a moment it would quiver as though about 
to go to fragments, then shoot down like mad. 
Surely now the captain will be frightened. But 
his great browned face never changed its confi- 
dent setting of a single feature. It was evident 
that he was master of the sea and of his ship. 
And the peace of that captain put our hearts and 
minds to rest and I said, " There is no danger 
while that captain is so calm." 

In all the ways of life there is just one measure 
of security, and that is our Father's face. We 
may be cast about till we seem to have no place 
on which to stand. We may be sent down until 
we stand at the lowest point, at the open grave ; 
disease may come fast and furious, yet so long as 
the heavenly Father's face is calm there is no 
danger. Go look in His face in the times of 
distress and trial and all will grow calm, for the 
peace of God which passeth all understanding 
will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 
Peter was one of the first to look into that calm 
face after Christ's resurrection, and the old joy 



136 The Message of To-Morrow 

and confidence which he had lost through the 
denial came to him to abide forever. 

Man knows well the flow of the tides and the 
flight of the winds, yet how little does he know 
of his spiritual storms or calms. Still God knows 
and in this supreme knowledge and power man 
may rest. From the human side the trouble belt 
in the world is not very wide. The atmosphere 
where are storm and calm, is only about twelve 
miles high. The water at Niagara Falls is only 
about twenty-five feet deep where all is foam and 
roar and danger. But down where the ocean is 
one thousand feet deep there is rest and peace. 
So one can easily go beyond the trouble line, as the 
fish can easily go below the seething surface of 
the water, the worm can easily go below the frost 
line, the eagle can fly beyond the driving storm 
and bathe his feathers in the shining sun. 

Thus we may run to the covert from the storm 
and find in the presence of the great God who 
controls all things, that peace of God which keeps 
the heart and mind in Christ Jesus. 

Here is an old godly mother who has had 
heavy cares and numerous trials from childhood, 
who has lost money, friends and loved ones, until 
you think she must be full of blinding sorrow. If 
you listen by the door of the humble home you 
will hear her say, 

" ' Thy will be done/ I'll lean the harder on 
His strong arm ; for He has said, ' I will keep 



The Peace of God 137 



him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on 
Thee.' " 

And she shuts out the trouble as she enters 
into His presence, and puts the whole world to 
rest as she finds the peace of God. Who would 
not be a child again to learn this great lesson from 
such a life? Who would not willingly rest again 
from the cares and trials of hard pressing life, 
and say, 

" Backward turn backward 
O time in thy flight, 
Make me a child again 
Just for to-night. 

" Mother come back 

From the echoless shore, 
Take me again 
To your heart as of yore. 

" Over my slumber 

Thy loving watch keep, 
Rock me to sleep 
Mother, rock me to sleep." 

Dear mother, who in a restless sorrowing 
world reminds us of the peace of childhood, thou 
dost also teach us of the peace of God which pass- 
eth all understanding, and which shall keep our 
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and which we 
find when we are, 

" Safe in the arms of Jesus, 
Safe on His gentle breast, 
There by His love o'ershaded 
Sweetly my soul shall rest." 



X 



WHAT ALL SHOULD DO ABOUT THE GOSPEL 

" Nfcodemus .... came to Jesus by night and 
said unto Him, Rabbi we know that thou art a teacher 
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that 
thou doest except God be with him." — St. John 3: 2. 

While seated in an elevated train in our city 
some time ago, I saw a penny on the floor be- 
tween two gentlemen, both of whom spied the 
piece of money at the same instant. Each mo- 
tioned the other to take it, and each refused. 
Again there was from each to the other the com- 
mand with hand, and eye, and head, to take the 
money. Then one took it up and handed it to the 
other and the other refused it. Then said the new 
possessor of the coin, 

"What shall I do with it?" 

" What is generally done with money ? " asked 
the other. 

It was evident that neither of the men wanted 
to be so small as to be sold for a cent. If it had 
been $500, or $5,000, or $50,000, what a dispute 
there would have been as to who saw the money 
first, and as to who was the owner, for either 
would have taken the risk of some trouble for 
that amount. 

138 



What all Should do About the Gospel 139 

So we pass quickly by that which we regard 
as worthless, and will not touch it. But that which 
we value highly receives our life homage. 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of 
the life of its Author, seems to us almost worth- 
less, as did the penny to the two men in the car. 
And by what we do about it, all will know how 
highly we value its preciousness. 

I. To give the Gospel proper attention is the 
first great duty of all in regard to 
the Gospel. 

Very few seem to do that in these days. Old 
Nicodemus came to Christ and said, 

" We know that Thou art a teacher sent from 
God." " We know." 

" We do not know," is often the cry of to- 
day. Few of us have definite religious knowl- 
edge and fewer definite religious convictions. We 
can not be sure. And yet we have a better reason 
for knowing now than had Nicodemus. 

It is very strange that we know the least about 
the most important things of life. You stop 1,000 
men in the street and ask them where they are 
going and 999 will tell you exactly where they 
will soon arrive, street number and all. But you 
stop 1,000 and ask them what about the journey 
of life that goes beyond street and number in any 
earthly city, and a large number of them will not 
know, they have not mapped out life's journey 
that far ahead. It is easy to plan for a short 



140 The Message of To-Morrow 

journey. You can do that without any trouble, 
but you need help for a long one, and here is 
where the Gospel aids you. It is the guide book, 
the sailing chart ; and Christ Himself is the Guide 
and the Captain. 

Attention to the Gospel is what is needed, for 
it brings to us in the form of " we know " what 
is the absolute certainty, the value and the blessed- 
ness of life. O how we should seek the best in 
life, O how we should know life's value in the 
Gospel. An old farmer who stuttered a great 
deal, went to his town in a western State to tele- 
phone to a friend a couple of hundred miles away. 
The friend noticed that the farmer did not stutter 
as he had been accustomed to do, and when the 
conversation was finished he said, 

" You seem to talk better since you went out 
there. You don't stutter like you used to." The 
other answered without repeating a single letter 
and as clear as a bell, 

" No, a man can not afford to stutter through 
a telephone when talk costs him fifty cents a 
minute." 

So the man who knows the importance of life 
and the responsibilities of living, will not let the 
impediments of his lower nature bother him in 
the least. Blessed is the man whose long distance 
talk to his God is better than his talk to his fellow 
men. It is by means of this helpful Gospel of 
Christ and the Christ of the Gospel that we are 
able to have this swiftness and certainty of life 



What all Should do About the Gospel 141 

toward the future so that we shall say with Nico- 
demus, " We know that Thou art come from 
God, — we know." 

Why do we know? Because we have learned 
it. We have put our attention upon these things 
until they have become our possession. 

So we need to put our attention upon this 
greatest of all sources of knowledge. We need 
to find out about the Gospel, to know its power, 
to feel its force, to live its greatness. 

Why there are plenty of people who know noth- 
ing about Astronomy though they have heard the 
names of the greatest astronomers. There are a 
great many who know nothing about Mathemat- 
ics, and yet they have heard the name of Euclid. 
There are thousands who know nothing of elec- 
tricity, though they hear of Morse and Edison 
and Tesla, nearly every day. Their trouble is 
they have not given these subjects time and atten- 
tion. 

Great fortunes have been the wonder of this 
age. Men who started in life without a penny 
fairly rule this country. If you ask them how it 
came they will tell you that they did it by putting 
their whole time and attention on a plan that 
would work. They put themselves into it and 
they knew they would then succeed, they could 
not help it. 

These are colossal lessons to the Gospel seeker. 
It is folly for you to think that you are going to 
get good out of the Gospel of Christ without giv- 



142 The Message of To-Morrow 



ing it time and money and attention. Do you ex- 
pect to absorb a good life and a character like 
God's? Have a care then, for the human pores 
are tightly closed to the coming in of anything. 
You might rather expect that the money in the 
banks will come out and chase after you, as you 
race along the street, and roll up into your pock- 
ets for your use, than that you are going to gain 
a character that is godlike, and which will give 
you peace here and eternal life there, without 
attention and application and study. Paul said, 
" 1 beat myself under the eyes, that I may not 
be a castaway." I plead with you to put your 
attention upon this Gospel of Christ and it will 
pay you better than any millionaire has ever been 
paid in dollars for his ceaseless labour. 

If this Gospel deserved the attention of Nico- 
demus and of our fathers and mothers it surely 
must have our changeless devotion. 

Then this Gospel never disappoints. No man 
comes seriously and honestly to it without being 
richly paid. You spend years at learning a busi- 
ness by which you are to earn your daily bread. 
You go through the hardest training to become 
educated in body and mind. You spend years 
of time and the closest attention for the achieve- 
ment of one victory in politics, in literature or 
in business. Why then should you begrudge any 
time to religion which promises you all that you 
may ever hope to receive in the next world. 

Beside all this a man may fail as a banker. He 



What all Should do About the Gospel 143 

may fail as a mechanic, he may fail as an orator, 
though he may work very hard, and be as dili- 
gent as is possible. But no man ever gives his 
time and attention and heart life to the Gospel of 
Christ without his reward. All that Christ asks 
is your attention. 

Some years ago in England two men said they 
would prove the life of Christ a failure and the 
Gospel a myth. In order to do this they decided 
to attack two of the great facts in the history of 
Christianity. One took the resurrection of Christ 
and the other the conversion of Paul. They stud- 
ied all history sacred and profane and to the 
astonishment of the world, and to the delight of 
all Christians, they produced not two volumes 
against Christianity, but two of the strongest tes- 
timonies in its favour the world has ever seen. 
All the Gospel asked was their serious, honest at- 
tention and when they saw they believed. 

A few years ago two friends were talking, when 
one asked the other if he still believed in infidelity. 
The other said he did and then added that he be- 
lieved a beautiful story could be written about 
the Jesus of Nazareth. The other said he be- 
lieved he would write such a book. So he went 
to Palestine and studied the life of Christ there, 
and instead of writing a book against Christ and 
Christianity as was at first intended he wrote 
one of the greatest books Christianity has ever 
numbered among her triumphs. All that the 
Christ of the Gospel asked of any of these men 



144 The Message of To-Morrow 

was time and attention. Ingersoll only ridicuied 
the Gospel of Christ. He did not study it. He 
was only a profane joker in holy things. Gen. 
Lew Wallace gave his attention and the Gospel 
did what it always will do, it won his heart, and 
he then wrote the great book, Ben Hur. 

The Gospel comes with an honest demand that 
you give it your attention, and then you will have 
the certainty of eternal life, and may say with 
Nicodemus, " We know." 

II. TO SET A GREAT VALUE UPON THE GOSPEL 
IS THE SECOND DUTY OF EVERYONE IN RE- 
GARD TO THE GREAT MESSAGE. 

Nicodemus was like the thousands of our day 
who, like the men in the street car, want the 
penny but do not wish to be seen picking it up. 
He came at night because he did not wish at 
once to be identified with the cause of the Nazar- 
ene. He did not know the value of the good news 
offered him. His way of thinking was the best, 
he believed. He placed his " We know " over 
against the " I am " of the divine message. For 
the time this message of Christ was to him only 
as the penny which lay at his feet, not worth his 
attention. 

The reason why we do not become Christians 
sooner is because we undervalue the Gospel. We 
consider it something to be taken, like medicine 
when we are sick and about to die. It is too 
often regarded as was the penny in the car, which 



What all Should do About the Gospel 145 



can not do us much good at best if taken, and 
hence is not much loss to us if we do not have it. 

We do as little as possible for the great cause 
which is divine, counting it next to worthless 
and then when trouble and calamity and death 
come we wonder why it is that religion is of no 
use. It is the man who picks up the pennies that 
has the fortune at the end of life. It is the man 
who learns of this wonderful Gospel down deep 
in his mind and soul that has the religion that 
pays. Men come to the end of life and think it 
strange that they do not feel religious when they 
are about to die. They think that religion ought 
to take hold of them, whereas they ought long 
ago to have taken hold of religion. The things 
that are prominent at the end of life are the things 
that have had power all along the way. The 
man in the car did not see much use in the one 
penny, but he would if he had had it multiplied 
by a million. You do not see the value of the 
Christian life, but you will if you come honestly 
and see the blessings of life multiplied by in- 
finity. 

Nicodemus perhaps thought he would belittle 
himself by coming out actively for Christ. He 
was a member of the Sanhedrin, a religious and 
a civil ruler among his people. How could he 
come down to this low level of the Gospel ? 

However Christ soon showed him that his 
wealth and greatness, when compared to that of 
Christ was in the ratio of nothing to infinity of 



146 The Message of To-Morrow 

value, and that proportion remains the same to- 
day. The man who thinks that he belittles him- 
self or compromises himself by becoming a Chris- 
tian has not yet begun to understand values. He 
has not yet adopted the standard, the smallest unit 
of which is beyond the multiplied arithmetical 
and geometrical progressions of his own enumera- 
tion. 

Christ was so much greater than Nicodemus 
here in this interview, that Nicodemus seemed 
like a twittering sparrow or a chirping cricket in 
the presence of a Mozart or a Mendelssohn. Did 
it belittle Nicodemus to come to Christ? No, for 
this and one other act, that of his helping in the 
tender service of the burial of Jesus, were the 
only immortal deeds he ever did. All else van- 
ished from the page of history long ago, but this, 
which he considered a small act, and which was 
done at night, will remain the mark of his earthly 
immortality and will blaze forever in the bright 
light of the eternal day. 

It is not then a small thing to become a Chris- 
tian. It is the greatest act of life. It is that 
which immortalizes you and makes you an orator 
of good forever, like Abel of old, who "being 
dead yet speaketh." It gives your good deeds 
to history to be seen and read of all men, like 
the woman who anointed Jesus with the oint- 
ment, so she was linked forever with the Gospel, 
for it is said that : " Wheresoever this Gospel is 



What all Should do About the Gospel 147 



preached, this also that she has done shall be 
told as a memorial of her." 

To become immortal you must unite with that 
person — the Christ — and that power — the Gospel 
— which will live forever and ever. 

O that you might know the value of the Gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ. Moses considered it of more 
value than all the treasures in Egypt. Paul gave 
up everything, even his life for the Gospel's sake. 
O wondrous power that moves and sways the 
world and swings it on toward the very gate of 
heaven. Is this a small power ? Look at its repre- 
sentative, Christ. We look and we say like the 
poor demoniac of Gadara, " What have we to 
do with this Jesus, the son of David." We come 
like keen old Nicodemus and ask, how can these 
things be? We do not know in whose presence 
we are. We do not know that this is the King. 

It is said that the present German Emperor 
one day took a long walk at Potsdam. He had 
gone further than usual and at dusk he was dusty 
and weary and still some distance from the palace. 
A country woman, one of his subjects, driving 
a cart overtook him. He spoke to her politely 
and asked if he might take a seat in her cart. She 
looked for a moment at the dusty and travel 
stained king and then whipping up her horse, she 
said : 

" Not I, I don't like the looks of you." Some 
distance down the road a mounted patrol stopped 



148 f he Message of To-Morrow 



the woman and asked her what the Kaiser said 
to her. 

"The Kaiser," she said, "was that the Kai- 
ser ? " Then as the truth dawned upon her she 
gave one glance at the king as he was approach- 
ing, whipped up her horse and was soon out of 
sight. She did not know her king. So with Nico- 
demus, so with you and me, we do not know 
Him, we do not know that He is the King of 
kings and Lord of lords. 

" Behold a stranger at the door 
He gently knocks, has knocked before 
Has waited long is waiting still, 
You treat no other friend so ill." 

It will make you great to ride and abide with 
the King. Let us then come not timidly like 
Nicodemus as though the Gospel is only a worth- 
less thing, but let us come boldly to our King and 
to the everlasting treasures of His kingdom. 

iii. to accept the christ of revelation, is 
the third great duty of all in regard 
to the Gospel. 

Nicodemus said, 

" No man can do these miracles which Thou 
doest except God be with him." It was then a 
divine claim. This claim has never been dis- 
proved or set aside, so the obligation rests upon 
everyone to accept Christ. He does things dif- 
ferently from the way they are done by anyone 
else. Why should it be thought strange then that 



What all Should do About the Gospel 149 



we should not understand everything about Chris- 
tianity. If we understood all, the Gospel would 
not go beyond the human ken, and would not be 
greater than a great human production. From 
its very nature there must be things in the Gos- 
pel which we can not yet understand. And when 
Nicodemus asked, 

" How can these things be," he was giving 
his testimony that no man can do the things that 
Christ did except God be with him. 

Why did Nicodemus want to understand all? 
Why do we want to know the how of every- 
thing, for that is impossible? 

Suppose the boy of five years should go to 
his father who had invented a wonderful ma- 
chine, such as a printing press, and say, 

" I will not believe in this machine or work 
with it until I can understand how it is made 
and how it is operated." " But," says the 
father, " you can't understand it. I might waste 
all my time explaining and yet you could not 
understand." 

" Well," says the boy, " I will never have any- 
thing to do with it unless I can perfectly under- 
stand." 

" But," says the father, " you will learn as 
you go on." 

" No," says the boy. " I must know now." 

That boy is just like the man who says, 

" I will not accept Christ and Christianity until 
I can understand all." 



150 The Message of To-Morrow 

How foolish! How can the child understand, 
how can you understand except by learning? 

Yes Christianity, the Gospel demands your at- 
tention, your faith, even though you can not 
understand. 

We can not understand the how of anything 
very well, that is nearly always mysterious. You 
can not understand the growth of the lily. Christ 
threw this out as a challenge at the beginning of 
his ministry, when he said, 

" Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow." 

But no one has yet understood or explained 
their growth. Then why should the how of the 
change of our hearts and lives be thought strange ? 
The fact that it is so is sufficient as Nicodemus 
expressed it when he said, 

" No one can do (not how they do) these 
miracles unless God be with him." You are dif- 
ferent from what you were 10, 20, 30 years ago. 
You do not know how it is but you understand 
the difference. So when God tells us that in His 
Son we are to have changed hearts and different 
lives, as different as though we were to be born 
into a new world, we know it is true, because no 
one can do these things except the God of power. 
Trust your life to the Christ of the Gospel, it will 
pay though men may say you will fail. 

A youth one day was climbing the Alps; far 
up the cliffs he had gone till the sun had set and 
the night was upon him. Kind hearted villagers 
warned him of his danger but he would not stay. 



What all Should do About the Gospel 151 

Higher and still higher he climbed. The gray 
dawn of the next day revealed his lifeless body 
in the snow, and in his hand the banner of his 
hope. 

" There in the twilight cold and gray 
Lifeless but beautiful he lay, 
And from the sky serene and far 
A voice fell like a falling star. 

Excelsior ! " 

Why did the poet Longfellow immortalize this 
youth who perished foolishly ? If he had reached 
the top of the mountain in spite of the snow and 
cold and storm, or if he had arrived there sooner 
than any one else and so had broken the record, 
as they say in this age of fast and furious con- 
test, then we might have expected poetry to com- 
memorate his heroism. But he never reached the 
top, and his climbing was a failure, but his life 
was not. He trusted himself to a great and lofty 
cause and in that he never failed. 

The great poems of the world are about men 
who trusted themselves to a great cause and 
seemed to lose. There is that one of Wordsworth 
about Toussaint L'Ouverture. Toussaint was a 
black slave of San Domingo, one of the West 
Indies. In 1794 the French government freed 
all the slaves on this island and Toussaint soon 
became the governor. In 1802 Napoleon sent an 
army to reduce them again to slavery. Though 
he did not succeed, he did take Toussaint to 



152 The Message of To-Morrow 

France and confined him in a mountain fortress 
where he soon died, as Napoleon expected he 
would. But in the poem of Wordsworth he will 
always live, while liberty has life. He gave him- 
self to the Gospel of Liberty and so he con- 
quered. 

He who gives his life attention to the Gospel 
of Christ shall live forever in name and fame, 
even in the face of apparent failure as did Tous- 
saint L'Ouverture, and as did Nicodemus. 



XI 



life's venture 

" Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets 
for a draught." — St. Luke 5: 4. 

What did this Carpenter know about fishing? 
What could He say that would help these men, 
who knew from childhood every foot of the shore 
and every fathom of the water of the Sea of Gali- 
lee? What could He tell them about fishing in 
the day, the unusual time, when they with their 
best experience had toiled all night, the proper 
time for fishing, and had caught nothing? Did 
He wish to mock their failure? No, He did not. 
Then something strange was about to happen. 
In the shadow of the coming events, the disciples 
stood bewildered. There had been a strange fas- 
cination about His teaching that day. He swayed 
the multitudes as the winds sway the forests. He 
held their attention as the sun holds the sun- 
flower, which from dawn to dark keeps its face 
toward the king of day. It was evident that 
Christ had come to have His way ; and fisherman 
and Pharisee alike were to bow before Him. 
Peter was the spokesman, as usual in after ex- 
periences, and his words are worth a moment's 
notice. He spoke briefly and to the point. Christ 
153 



154 The Message of To-Morrow 

had told them to cast their net on the other side 
of the boat, which they were slow to do. But 
Peter agreed on these conditions. 

" Master we have toiled all night, and caught 
nothing. What use is there then in any further 
effort? Nevertheless at Thy word, (if Thou wilt 
be responsible), we will let down the net." So 
they, 

I. Launch out into the deep. 

It was a great picture of Himself. He had 
first of all come from heaven into the depths of 
this sinful world. In the face of these facts the 
wildest storms could bear no comparison and 
present no danger. He had already met and van- 
quished the worst forces of temptation and dis- 
ease. He had met the devil in several encounters 
and was conqueror. He had met sin, the great 
dark enemy of all, and it too had suffered defeat 
at His hand. 

No one had yet launched out so far as He into 
the deep dark mysteries of life; and when He 
comes to us with the command to launch out, we 
are to know that this is the world wide cry of 
progress, in all lines and in all the ages; for no 
man who is narrow and limited, and an inshore 
fisherman will go far in any branch of business 
or Christian life to-day. 

It was Mr. Cyrus Field, with an idea as broad 
as the ocean, a faith as deep as the sea, and a 



Life's Venture 



155 



perseverance which no storm or failure could kill, 
who kept on and on until the Atlantic Cable was 
laid and man could speak with man under the 
sea. This was literally launching out into the 
deep, and defying all things for the sake of suc- 
cess. 

They say that a submarine telephone system 
has just been invented and that the man who 
completed this great work toiled nine years to 
embody his hope and faith in the completed work. 
What a venture that was ! Nine years in the 
dark, without telling the world about it! Nine 
years in the balance between success and failure, 
between hope and despair! Nine years of time 
and money spent ; that is surely launching out into 
the deep. 

Here in New York, several years ago, I was 
invited by two gentlemen to go into a little room, 
which was closely locked and guarded. That 
room contained a secret on which these men were 
spending much time and labour. Day after day 
and year after year they put their time, their 
money, and their best thought, into that machine. 
It seemed to me a hopeless undertaking. It did 
not seem possible that it would pay for any of 
the time they had given to it and the money it 
had cost them. And yet that has become one of 
the greatest inventions of the age. They were 
launching out into the deep; and imitating, in a 
small way, the Christ in His venture on the Sea 



156 The Message of To-Morrow 



of Galilee, and the example of Columbus, when 
he set sail from the old world with the Pinta, 
Nina, and Santa Maria. 

Why, this is an age of ventures. It is not much 
use to start in any branch of business these days, 
unless one has a round million of dollars or more. 
It takes a great deep ocean, to float the stock of 
the great trusts and corporations. The sea of 
Galilee, about twelve miles long by six wide, is 
no match for these financial seas that flow round 
and round the world, shutting in the little islands 
on which man dwells. 

Since now this advance movement in business 
is so widespread, and since there are so many 
great ventures in obedience to man's opening op- 
portunities, why should it be thought strange that 
Christ came to earth and used this simple event 
on the Sea of Galilee as an example of what we 
may do, as well as a proof of that which He has 
already done? If it is believed that Columbus 
made his voyage to discover a continent, why 
should it be thought strange that Christ came 
from heaven to save men. Humanly speaking it 
was more impossible for Columbus to make his 
voyage, than for Christ to make His, into this 
sinful world. The one cry of all things is, 
" Launch out into the deep." 

Why then should the Church be the last to 
hear this command ? Why should the world have 
more faith in its efforts than the Church has in 
its Leader? 



Life's Venture 



* SI 



Here is a plot of ground, cleared away in our 
city and workmen are busy with plan and material. 
Workmen go here and there with all confidence. 
What does it mean? 

" They are building a Church," you say. But 
look again after a few days have passed, and 
you will see that it is not a Church, but a great 
business block; and soon the name of the firm 
will be placed in front, and business will be car- 
ried on there with all the confidence of success. 

Here, a little further over, is another plot of 
ground. There are also plan, material, and work- 
men. But the work goes slowly and stops alto- 
gether by times. The venture is carefully 
guarded. And what building is this? it is not 
a business block, but if you will wait for a year 
or two it will be far enough along for you to see 
that it is a Church! Is it true then that men 
have less faith in Church and in religion than in 
business? Perhaps not; but certainly people are 
not usually so explicit and definite, and are not 
in so much of a hurry about religion as they are 
about business. This in the text is an incident, 
which has to do with business, and yet it was 
altogether at the command of Christ. It is the 
lesson that the world needs to learn. We are all 
too slow with our religious experience, and too 
careless about God's part in the business schemes 
and transactions of the daily life. If we could 
learn, that God controls the circumstances of 
every business venture, as well as the fish of the 



158 The Message of To-Morrow 

sea, we would not only be more reverent, but 
also more successful. 

Men make ten ventures in business to where 
they make one in religion, and then only about 
three in ten make any kind of a venture in religion 
at all. But you ask, 

"Is not the business man surer of success?" 
On the other hand, those who have carefully 
studied the subject say that there are about ten 
failures in business to one in religion. And this 
is as it might be expected, for in religion a man 
has the Almighty, who guided the disciples on 
the Sea of Galilee, while a man in business, with- 
out the divine help, has only his will, his energy, 
and his brain to depend upon. Not that busi- 
ness and religion are to be separated, but rather 
that they are to unite in proper relation, that 
they may act in harmony, the centrifugal and the 
centripetal forces, which are to keep all in poise 
before God. 

Let not therefore the tired and over worked 
Peters, when commanded to go forward, rise 
and say, 

" It is no use ; we have toiled and lost." There 
is success for everyone in temporal and in spiritual 
life, if we only find the right way. 

It is well that this incident happened as it did, 
or Christ would have lost one of His best oppor- 
tunities, and the disciples would have missed one 
of the best lessons. As it was they got the fish, 



Life's Venture 



159 



the lesson, and the Saviour. If they had been suc- 
cessful in catching the fish that night, they would 
have missed one of the greatest moments of their 
lives. Is it not so that God comes to us often in 
our misfortunes and disappointments, and makes 
them the happiest and best times of our lives? 

This all happened in a most unexpected way. 
They were out in the deep where they did not 
usually fish, they were all tired and discouraged, 
and everything seemed wrong. So Christ went 
to a great deal of trouble, to teach them that He 
can control all circumstances and conditions of 
life in spite of anything. 

So in this seething, boiling, almost frenzied 
business life of to-day, is where the Church is to 
do her best work. The question for every Chris- 
tian is, 

" Am I launching out into the work as the 
Master has commanded ?" We wonder if there 
will be any to rise and rock the boat, so as to 
well nigh pitch all into the sea, or will all go 
forward, eagerly and with confidence? 

The secret of all is with our Captain. He is 
with us as He was with the disciples. Old Clem- 
ent of Alexandria, out of a rich experience said 
of Him, 

" Fisher of men the blest, 
Out of the world's unrest, 
Out of sin's troubled sea, 
Take us Lord to Thee. 



160 The Message of To-Morrow 

Out of the waves of strife, 
With the bait of a blissful life 
Drawing the net to shore, 
With choisest fish good store.'" 

This is the song of every follower of Christ 
who obeys His voice and launches out into the 
deep. 

II. Let down the nets for a draught. 

This experience of the disciples was no mere 
excursion. It was no pleasure trip as a relief 
from the strain of teaching of the day before. 
It was no mere fancy picture of the " Painted 
ship upon the painted ocean." It was a most 
definite statement of the nearness of divine life, 
and what the blessings of our life may be if we 
will take His way. Christ is always promising 
something definite. Life in all forms is dear to 
Him and is assigned to its place. All forces will 
produce their results. The acorn can produce 
only its kind, the beech nut only the beech tree. 

The first thing then that God does, is to answer 
the cry of the soul. If a man is a fisherman God 
does not expect him to be a lawyer, and if he is 
a farmer, He does not expect him to be changed 
at once to a mechanic. Christ's mission in the 
world is to supply man's need. The thought in 
the disciples' minds was that they had caught 
nothing and that they needed fish. And how 
quickly He answers that need, even before the 
disciples asked Him. 

The world's supply as well as the soul's supply 



Life's Venture 



161 



is in keeping close to Christ, for He is supreme 
over all life. He longs to answer the prayer of 
every life, but can not unless He has the right to 
control all. It must be remembered that the dis- 
ciples were obedient to Him at this time. There 
were plenty of other ships there, and none of 
them seem to have been successful. All they re- 
ceived was from the disciples who had more than 
they could manage. Then He turned the lesson 
and gave them the great object of His own great 
life, and made the disciples helpers, when He 
said, " Ye shall catch men." This was to be the 
object of their lives, an abiding interest in their 
fellow men. A man grows great according to 
the object toward which he constantly works, and 
true greatness is Godlikeness, for we increase in 
importance as we approach toward Him. 

George Williams, in a warehouse in England, 
was but little known for a long time. There was 
not much in the moving of boxes and keeping of 
accounts to give him fame. But he was working 
in another way. He gathered in a little company 
of men and talked to them of the needs of the 
kingdom of Christ, and what might be done for 
the human soul. So, little companies of men were 
organized far and wide over the world, until the 
Young Men's Christian Association became a 
great force in the conversion of the world, and 
the object of George Williams was then known ; 
for he had launched out into the deep and let 
down his net for a draught. 



1 62 The Message of To-Morrow 

Carey was a poor man and his family needed 
every cent he could make at his business, that of 
cobbling shoes. But his thoughts did not stop 
with that simple duty, for while at work he had 
time to study and pray for the great cause of 
missions, until he became one of the great forces 
in the reformation of the world. Working to- 
ward this high and noble object he became truly 
a fisher of men. 

There has just closed a wonderful career on 
the other side of the sea, that of Queen Victoria. 
It was a life which had in it the strength of the 
oak, and the sweetness and beauty of the rose. 
For over two-thirds of a century she stood the 
test of the " White light which falls upon a 
throne." Her life has brought more blessings to 
the wide world, than that of any other human 
sovereign, in all history. If she could have had 
her way, not a soldier would ever have been killed 
in war through these sixty-four years, not an 
island would have suffered oppression, not a 
colony would have been treated unjustly, not one 
South African home would have been despoiled, 
and not one Boer life would have been sacrificed. 
Such lives come only once in a long time in this 
strange world. What is the cause of this fame, 
this power, this purity, this nobility? Go back 
in English history to 1837, and look at that coro- 
nation scene. Listen to that prayer of the young 
queen to the Almighty, that she might rule ac- 
cording to His will. Listen to that vow to be 



Life's Venture 



first of all faithful to her God, then to herself, 
and to the people, and you will have the secret 
of her greatness. That was the bud, this the un- 
folding through the years of this flower of good- 
ness whose fragrance was to fill the whole earth. 
A fisher of men was she in the great broad sea 
of public life in a world of storm and tempest. 
All honour to that great and noble life. 

But God does not look alone to kings and 
queens for the reformation of the world. He 
takes the fishermen from the boat as He took 
His disciples. He takes a Moses from the obscur- 
ity of a desert, and makes him greater than a 
Pharaoh in Egypt. He takes a Paul from among 
the persecutors, and makes him greater than Nero 
upon his throne. He takes John Knox from 
among the galley slaves, and makes him greater 
than the most fascinating queen of earth. He 
takes Martin Luther, the humble monk, and 
makes him greater than the Pope at Rome. And 
all this because they went out with him to be fish- 
ers of men. 

So in the presence of Christ we stand, and at 
His command we humbly cast the net, and in the 
draught we shall draw multitudes to Him, for 
we are fishers of men. 

III. Enclosed a multitude of fishes. 

How quickly this story reaches its climax. It 
requires several hundred pages in one of our 
modern novels to tell its secret. But here a world 



164 The Message of To-Morrow 



wide and everlasting truth is told in a little over 
fifty words. This all shows Christ's divinity. No 
one else has ever done such a thing. Their nets 
and their boats were filled to their utmost, and 
they realized that one who was more than human 
was guiding the events of that day. 

So Christ stands supreme amid the mysteries 
of life, and gives wealth of character and power 
of soul. The disciples could not understand the 
events of that morning until Christ had made all 
things plain. But they had one excellent quality, 
that which is indispensable to revelation, that is 
obedience to the divine command. So there are 
thousands of mysteries all around us; every day 
we have to go on in the dark, expecting the reve- 
lation to come to us as it is promised. The great 
word of everyone who will find the revelation of 
God's mysteries is, 

" Nevertheless at Thy word we will let down 
the net." 

The prospect may be very small, the human im- 
possibility may be to us very plain, and yet we 
are to go on at His word. It is He that has said, 

" If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed 
ye shall say to this mountain, " Be thou removed, 
and be thou cast into the sea and it shall be done." 
It does not say, If ye have faith as a full grown 
mustard tree, but as the seed, which begins its 
life under the ground and out of sight, hidden 
away from the sun and air. It does not say, 

" 1 must have sun and light and air before I 



Life's Venture 



i6 5 



will begin to grow, therefore take away the 
ground, take away the ground; if you do not 
I will not grow." If it were to say and 
demand that, and have it granted, the light 
and heat would be too much for its tender 
life. And yet that is what too many de- 
mand. They say that unless they can understand 
all they will not believe. That is like the boy 
who says he will not go to school until he can 
understand all that he is to learn; or like the 
grain of mustard seed that will not grow unless 
it is a tree before it starts. It was the simple act 
of faith on the part of the disciples that gave 
them the abundance of fishes, such as they wanted. 
It is the simple act of trustfulness in our daily 
toil that gives us the blessing which can come in 
no other way. It is the same trustfulness that 
we see in the sparrows which do not sow or reap 
or garner the harvest, and yet always have plenty 
because the Heavenly Father feedeth them. 

Christ stands now as then, supreme in the world 
of life. He is more than the mere Carpenter, He 
is the world wide Providence to give to a perish- 
ing world what is needed. He rose above the 
rules and laws of fishing on the sea of Galilee, 
for He disregarded the conventional methods, 
and thereby showed that He was Master of every 
phase and form of life. He who made the worlds 
with the spoken word, calling material into being, 
no one knows how ; He who could make another 
set of worlds as easily, and have plenty of ma- 



1 66 The Message of To-Morrow 

terial over, can He not provide in the daily life 
for our few wants and can He not assure us of 
the eternal reward? Why should man ever go 
hungry for bread or for opportunities, or for 
knowledge or for power, when this same divine 
One walks the shore of every sea, and asks every 
fisherman if he has caught any thing, and if he 
would catch an abundance? Why will not the 
world learn the lesson that it is the Christian's 
duty to feed the hungry instead of being a beggar ? 
And why will Christians not learn that all abun- 
dance which is to remain as a blessing is to be 
found in the Providence of God ? As soon as man 
learns this he will, like the disciples " enclose a 
multitude of fishes/' 



XII 



THE CHRIST POWER 

" Whether this man be a sinner or no I know not, 
but one thing I know that whereas I was blind now I 
see." — St. John 9: 25. 

If one accustomed only to the homely hut of 
the pioneer, were to be taken into the most beau- 
tiful earthly palace, then suddenly to see with 
uncovered eyes the surpassing splendour of that 
place, he would have some conception of the 
strange experience of this man who was born 
blind and suddenly made to see. 

This is a strange world even when it opens to 
us line by line, page by page, and volume by 
volume, from childhood onward. But for a man 
to grow to maturity of life and to fulness of 
strength with eyes covered, and then suddenly to 
have flashed before him in the white light of the 
noonday sun and the clearness of perfect vision 
all things beautiful, was an experience that the 
angels might envy. In the sudden blaze of glory 
this man saw but one object clearly and that was 
the Christ who gave him sight. In the palace 
of the king the guest sees not the glory of the 
palace, so much as the commanding presence of 
the king who has invited him. The hand which 
167 



1 68 The Message of To-Morrow 

has made the palace is greater than the palace. 
So Christ was to this man the most wondrous 
sight. 

The grass which springs from the ground in 
night time can only guess at the glory of the 
sun until the king of day be revealed. The trav- 
eller, entering Yellowstone Park in the twilight, 
can only see in outline the unsurpassed wonder- 
land that the day will spread out in all its beauty. 

The blind man had been guessing for perhaps 
twenty years, but now he stood in the full blaze 
of the noonday light of the Sun of righteousness. 
Three things he saw very clearly, first that, 

I. The Christ power defends. 

No one is so defenseless as a blind man. In a 
thousand ways he may suffer for need of sight. 
The best weapon to give him is vision. No one 
in the moral world is so helpless as the man who 
is without the truth of Christ. The best power 
that can be given him is a clear conception of 
right, the unchangeable truth of God. Four times 
the Pharisees attacked this man and four times 
they went down before the power of Christ in 
him. He was the moat about the castle, the 
portcullis tightly closed, the Chinese Wall around 
the invincible city of truth. " Whether this man 
be a sinner or no I know not, but one thing I 
know, that whereas I was blind now I see." 

Every man in the world will be tested. And 
the only power that can give him successful de- 



The Christ Power 



169 



fense against all attacks is the power of truth. 
With this, ignorant men will be able to stand firm 
in the face of the severest trials. With this the 
disciples moved the world with a mighty hand, 
to the surprise of the Christian centuries. With 
this Luther and Knox were able to push the old 
world along new graves, cut by the hand of Provi- 
dence. It was this same power of God's truth 
that led Luther to say, 

" I would go to Worms [the city where he was 
to be tried] if there are as many devils there as 
there are tiles on the roofs of the houses." It 
was this power that compelled the haughty Queen 
of Scots to say of John Knox, 

" I fear him more than I fear ten thousand of 
the best soldiers." 

A king once sent an officer to arrest a seer 
who had publicly reproved him. But when the 
officer came into the presence of the prophet, he 
was so impressed with his goodness, that he for- 
got his commission from the king and came over 
to the prophet's side. A second command of 
soldiers was sent with the same result. The king 
now very angry, started himself from his palace, 
rushed out like a maddened beast to find this 
seer. But when he came into the presence of the 
man of God, he too, was conquered and became 
a suppliant at the feet of the prophet. 

There is no power that can stand against the 
truth of God, planted in human character and 
working out into life. Around every one thus 



170 The Message of To-Morrow 

filled with the power of God's truth, there is a 
protection against the enemy, as there was a line 
around Mt. Sinai when God was giving the law 
to Moses; and the command given at that time 
has gone down the ages, that whosoever shall 
touch the mountain, — the character where God 
dwells — shall be stoned or thrust through with 
a dart. God is angry with every one who assails 
His truth as found in the human soul. Man will 
fail before it, as the Pharisees failed before this 
ignorant man whom Christ healed of blindness. 

Now this power of Christ in the human soul 
does not ask if it may work. It receives its au- 
thority and command from God. It carries stores 
of energy and volumes of manhood. 

The sun does not struggle to bring the grass 
from the ground. The sun does not call out: 

" O grass, O trees, come, come and grow in 
this way ! " But the king of day sends forth his 
power and warms the earth to make growth a 
necessity. So God surcharges us with His might 
and we can not but show forth His life. 

Moses went up to the mountain with form and 
feature as dull as any Israelite. The same Moses 
came down God-endowed, his face shining with 
the divine glory, because he represented God. 

It is this that makes the world believe in you, 
for this is what keeps all things in proper poise 
amid all the changes in the moral world. It is 
like the apostle Peter whose shadow, as he passed 
by, was sufficient to heal the sick. 



The Christ Power 



171 



Like Christ on His way to raise the dead, heals 
one by the way who only touched the hem of His 
garment, so the greatest work we do in the long 
run of time and eternity, is not so much by the 
busy hand as by the weight of moral character. 

A Shaftesbury leaving Parliament goes out at 
midnight to gather the waifs and strays from 
under Waterloo bridge, because the Saviour went 
about doing good, and he had learned the habit. 
And when they carried his body to its last rest- 
ing place, the whole city mourned ; and those 
who had been saved by him raised their banners 
bearing the inscription, 

" I was hungry and naked and he fed and 
clothed me." 

A Gladstone rising up from the councils of the 
nations where he defended the word of man, be- 
came the mightiest defender of the Word of God. 
So the great defense of the world to-day is the 
power of righteous life working in the lives of 
men as this power of Christ worked in the man 
that was born blind. 

II. The Christ power gives security. 

This is the law of the spiritual gravity by which 
we are held securely and yet freely to the place 
to which we have been assigned by Providence. 
If this blind man's gain had been but momentary 
it would hardly have paid to give up home and 
friend and church. But his gain was eternal. 
He might lose all earthly things, but this one 



172 The Message of To-Morrow 

thing would never pass away. Never could the 
Pharisees take away this vision of Christ. He 
had gone far beyond them. The water that 
rushes down the falls of Niagara can not turn 
and climb up again that steep cliff. It is pushed 
on and on out into the lake and further into the 
sea. The rock that has gone roaring and tearing 
down the mountain side can never return again to 
its lofty home, but must stay down there; for 
a great force holds the rock in its relentless grasp. 

This man had taken a new position in the 
world and he had taken it to stay. Others might 
change but he could not. He had passed the 
falls of his life, and could never go back again. 
" One thing I know." 

There has in like manner come into your life 
an experience which convinces you forever of 
your relation to your God. Some revelation has 
come, some strange event has happened, some 
blessing has been granted; and you know be- 
yond a doubt that God has helped you. It may 
have been that you were sinking beneath the 
waves of this surging sea of adversity, and a 
strong hand has taken hold of you, almost crush- 
ing you, and yet lifting you out of danger and 
into safety. That one thing has brought abso- 
lute confidence in the affairs of God, and will re- 
main forever as a fact. Life is not like a slate 
on which we write events only to be erased at 
pleasure. As well might you say that a Euclid 
does not keep in his mind the principles of mathe- 



The Christ Power 



173 



matics. As well might you say that a Sir Isaac 
Newton can erase from his mind the knowledge 
of the heavenly bodies, and destroy the measur- 
ing line which goes out and out into space. 

" One thing I know," said the man who now 
had experience. He did not have a college edu- 
cation, he was not a learned man, he did not need 
to know a large section of the Bible before he 
had certainty in life that he was right. He went 
not by knowledge, but by creed, and his creed — 
his belief — was of the power that God had given 
him. The creed of the man who is in a wreck 
at sea is that he can swim, and he knows it. It 
is not a power that he uses always, but he has 
it and can use it at any moment. It is not the 
power that he can use only on board the ship, 
nor does he need to hold to the ship when he is to 
save himself. It is the power of independent 
victory. 

Our creed like that of the blind man, is not 
how we see, but that we see, having a power 
which no one can take away. When one is 
pushed away from all his moorings as was this 
man, and made to go alone or sink, he soon finds 
how much he knows, and if he can endure. This 
man stood upon a foundation which could not be 
cut away. " One thing I know." 

Going along Fifty-ninth street at Broadway a 
few days ago, I saw that the northeast corner of 
the foundation of the statue of Columbus, had 
been removed. There was a great gaping hole, 



174 The Message of To-Morrow 

and spanning it was a heavy iron truss which 
formed in part, the new foundation for the statue, 
and at the same time the roof of the underground 
railroad which they are now building. It seemed 
typical of the practical principle here in this coun- 
try, that business will anywhere, and at any time, 
cut away the foundation from under sentiment, 
and even religion. Columbus would be a lucky 
man if he could stand in life at Fifty-ninth street 
and Broadway, and then travel the country with 
its quick changes and be able to say, 

" This one thing I know, that the principles of 
truth and right, of God and the conscience, shall 
stand forever." The man is a fortunate man who 
has his " One thing I know," so engraved upon 
his soul that no one can erase it. Man needs un- 
changeable faith in a few things, — in one thing — 
that is the never failing presence and power of 
God. 

There is one law in the world which never 
changes, which never varies under the same cir- 
cumstances, and which man never doubts, and 
that is the law of gravity. In vain man has tried 
to go beyond its reach. He has tried the balloon 
only to suffer disastrous results. He has tried 
mountain climbing, only to find that if his foot 
slip on the mountain side, gravity hurries and 
hustles him to the bottom, teaching him to say — 

" One thing I know," and that is, " whereas I 
was up, now I am down, and the law of gravity 
is secure." 



The Christ Power 175 

The man who tries to go beyond the power of 
God will as surely suffer. 

" One thing I know," says the man as he stands 
still amid the changing scenes of earth. 

The child sees for the first time the light house 
far out in the surging sea. He watches for a 
while and then asks : " Papa is that light-house 
safe." 

" O yes," answers the father, " it will stand 
secure." 

The child watches for a while, and then ex- 
claims, " There, there papa, I see it move." 

The father smiles and says, " No, no, it only 
seems to move, because the water all around is 
constantly changing. If there is one thing I 
know, it is that that light-house is built right. 
It is bolted and morticed and cemented. The most 
certain thing in all the world is that it will stand." 

There are those who, like the child, watch the 
restless surging events around the Christian life 
and say, " There, there, see it is a failure." Then 
one stands forth as did the blind man and says: 
" The most certain thing in all the world is my 
security in God. It is the one thing I know and 
know well. Whatever may be the belief of others 
this one thing I know, that I am secure upon the 
Eternal Rock of Ages." 

" How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord, 
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word; 
What more can He say than to you He hath said? 
You who unto Jesus for refuge hath fled," 



176 The Message of To-Morrow 

III. The Christ power gives us sight. 

" Now I can see." It was not an incident, it 
was a condition; not a flash of light upon his 
eye and then darkness, but rather a power of 
seeing, in which there were endless possibilities 
of pleasure. 

Conversion, the coming into the possession of 
a great new relation with God, and into new 
power, is not an event of a moment, but rather 
a permanent condition before God. A change 
has come. Eyes have been opened. 

It is a new world, yet we are in the same 
world. It is a new life, yet we are in the same 
life. It is an added power of God. 

" The fool hath said in his heart, ' there is no 
God.' " And to him it is as though there were 
none, for he does not see any. He goes groping 
about saying. 

" There is no God, I know there is no God, 
for I do not see any." 

We say of this man, " Poor fool," if he only 
would see God he would no longer be a fool; 
sound is not known by deafness, light is not 
known by blindness, wisdom is not known by 
folly and God is not known by ignorance. 

The melody of the song is only half in the 
singer's voice, and the other half in the listener's 
soul. To open the life of the soul to the har- 
mony of God, and the blessings of His constant 
presence, is the mission of Christ. This is the 
restoring of sight to the soul. This is the mission 



The Christ Power 



177 



also of all combinations of providence. It took 
a long time to bring this man to the proper place, 
so long that those who came to Christ laid it to 
some sin of his parents, or of himself. 

" Master who did sin, this man or his parents, 
that he was born blind ? " 

There are still in the world those foolish people 
who think that God is a great avenger, who 
stands somewhere above, with a scourge, watch- 
ing for a chance to strike every one who turns 
one hair's breadth from the right. They think 
everything that does not suit them, and does not 
agree with their plans is because God hates them. 
Those who think this forget the mission and 
words of Christ. 

" Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, 
but that the glory of God might be revealed, and 
this glory is Christ's helpfulness, for He said: 
" All power is given unto Me, both in heaven 
and on earth," therefore go and teach all nations, 
and help them to the Christ life. 

Of course suffering comes from sin, but not 
all that happens is punishment from God. A 
misfortune comes in the family. An affliction 
which medical skill can not remove. Blindness, 
lameness, care of an aged parent, the cutting off 
of bright possibilities for the future; these press 
upon you and you say, 

" What have I done that God should punish 
me." Why, my friend, God is not punishing you, 
He will not do that if He can help it. God loves 



178 The Message of To-Morrow 

you too much for that. The farmer sees the 
gathering clouds in the west, they grow blacker 
and thicker, they lower and lower, the thunder 
roars and the lightning flashes, and on comes the 
storm. He looks upon it, and then leaving the 
plow says : " There, that storm is coming be- 
cause I plowed that furrow crooked." So we 
miss it in the spiritual life. Of course we suffer 
for sin, but God does not go round imposing 
special punishments. He rather uses the circum- 
stances for our good and His glory. By these 
things He drives us in upon ourselves, and we 
learn that the greatest lesson next to know- 
ing God, is to know ourselves. For if we know 
ourselves we must know God, and if we know 
God we will know ourselves. 

The boy goes out and in his play is run over 
by the cars, and has his leg broken. When he is 
taken home does his mother stand by the door 
with a whip to scourge him? No, never, even 
though he may be to blame. He has punishment 
enough in the suffering. Then the mother places 
him comfortably in the chair after the limb has 
been set and brings books to him, and says, 

" Now Harry you will have time to do some 
reading." 

She sits by him, talks to him, tells him stories 
and recites to him the world's history. Through 
the affliction he learns of his mother's goodness 
and of himself. 

Blind Milton was thus driven in upon his own 



The Christ Power 



179 



life, to study the secrets of his own soul, and 
hence produced the Paradise Lost, and Paradise 
Regained. So afflictions drive us in upon our- 
selves, and we see the beauty and grandeur of the 
human soul, and the glory of God is revealed. 
We look above the mist for the glory of the sun, 
so we look above all earthly trials for the 
heavenly vision. 

A traveller returning to England from Africa 
was told that he was nearing home, for the peaks 
of Teneriffe had come in view. The passengers 
were all exclaiming: 

" There, there they are." 

But he said. 

" I do not see anything." 

They said, " Look again." He looked, but still 
did not see, when one glanced at his face and 
exclaimed : 

" You are looking too low. You must look 
above the clouds if you would see the mountains." 

We, like the blind man of the text, like the 
traveller from Africa, must look above the dis- 
tractions and trials of earth if we would see the 
eternal glory of God. 



XIII 



THE CROSS BEARER 

"And He bearing His cross, went forth to be cruci- 
fied/'— St. John 19: 17. 

From childhood we have been familiar with 
the picture of Atlas bearing the world upon his 
shoulders. Even to this fable the human mind 
has responded because there is everywhere the 
need of a saving and sustaining power. The full 
realization of this longing is found, not in fable, 
but in the reality of this incident when Christ 
went forth bearing the cross, for the sinning, suf- 
fering world. It is a sublime spectacle, that of 
the Almighty, in His Son, stooping under and 
bearing aloft the lowest symbol of deepest shame. 

I. Bearing His cross. 

That was the decree of the Roman law, that 
He should bear His own cross, as with every 
one condemned to be crucified. The difference 
came in the fact that the Cross of Christ was not 
heavy alone in the weight of wood that composed 
it, but also in its deep and abiding meaning. 
What made the cross heavy was that the very 
persons for whom He was bearing this heavy 
weight did not know Him, and did not under- 
180 



The Cross Bearer 181 



stand that He was bearing it for them. One of 
the saddest things in all human life is to come to 
the world with a great and noble purpose which 
has cost you your very life, and offer it freely, 
and have the very people to whom you bring the 
blessing, sneer and reject what would be to their 
everlasting good. 

You remember the story of Rip Van Winkle, 
who went to his native town after his twenty 
years of sleep, and how no one knew him. He 
talked to the old friends, "to his son and daughter, 
and yet they did not know him. How his old 
heart grieved under this load of sorrow. 

You remember how Joseph in Egypt went 
through slavery and prison for the sake of his 
father's family, and how, when he stood before 
his brothers to save them from famine and death 
they would not believe that he was Joseph, and 
that he meant well. Nor would his father believe 
until special proof had been furnished. O how 
Joseph longed to make himself known to these 
doubting brothers, and when they did believe, 
what a flood of tears washed away their grief. 

So with those who were urging Christ on to 
the place of crucifixion, they did not know Him. 
They did not know His mission, and He felt He 
had to be patient with them. 

The question comes to us to-day, " How truly 
do we know Christ in the scenes of our daily 
life?" How much are we forcing Him to bear, 
of all the weight of woe and care that fills the 



1 82 The Message of To-Morrow 

world. There was not at that time one hand to 
relieve the weight of the cross. All forsook Him 
and fled, and He stumbled on until He fell under 
the load, and Simon of Cyrene was forced to 
carry it for Him. 

We look into the churches these Sabbath morn- 
ings and see that the singing is mostly done in a 
careless, heartless way, men and women coming 
in many instances, out of curiosity, as did the 
great throng which followed Christ when He went 
to be crucified, and we are constrained to say, He 
is still bearing His own cross. We look in upon 
the Sabbath evening gatherings of our churches 
and see the pews vacant, in too many cases, and 
must say, surely Christ is bearing His own cross 
without any help, right in the midst of those 
whom He is helping. We look at the daily life 
of professing Christians and see the indifference 
to the eternal truth by which God manages the 
world, and we say again, surely He is bearing 
the cross alone to-day, as on that memorable day 
eighteen hundred years ago. See ! there He goes 
alone! Even those, His disciples, have forsaken 
Him. Why should He not fall under His burden ? 
Look at this picture. Look long and intently 
until you see yourself if you are there in that 
throng that is forsaking Him and letting Him 
bear His own Cross ; look until you see that noth- 
ing short of a heroic Christian life will do; look 
until you are willing to rush forward and take 



The Cross Bearer 183 



hold of this great cross of the world to help re- 
lieve that One who deserves never to bear it. 

Do you not know that it is the Christ who 
suffers because there is so little done for Him and 
because we know so little of His mission? To do 
and do for a boy in the family ; to get him out of 
trouble again and again ; to feed and clothe him ; 
to follow him when he goes into evil places, 
though he knows not that the father is near, and 
to protect him from various dangers at great 
cost, while all the time he spurns the parental 
care, — is that not hard for a father? Do you 
think that this is not a heavy cross? And yet 
what father is there who will not bear all this 
and even more if only that boy may be at last 
saved? Now you know why so many men in 
middle life and old age, are stooped and broken 
in spirit. They are bearing the crosses of their 
sons and daughters. Now you know why Sab- 
bath school teachers and ministers of the gospel 
look so careworn. It is not so much hard work 
as the heavy weight of care as they try to bear 
the burdens of their people. 

There was once a beautiful girl, it is said, who 
was brought from her pure country home, and 
subjected to a life of shame in this great city. 
Her mother spent all her life, all her time and 
nearly all her money hunting for her. When the 
mother would come near to where she was the girl 
would hurry on to some other place. At last in 



184 The Message of To- Morrow 

despair she went to a detective and told her story. 
' He said to her, " I will find your daughter." He 
told her to have her picture taken and have a 
large number printed for him to use. He took 
these photographs and wrote on them beneath 
the sad face the two words, " Come Home." Then 
he placed them upon the wall of every resort where 
he thought the girl would go. Soon she came 
into one of these places, and looking upon the face 
of her mother was filled with remorse. That sad 
face said to her, " Do you suffer ? I suffer more 
for you. I bear the heavy cross, come home." 
Then she found her way to her mother's home 
and to her mother's never changing love. 

Here we see in faint outline the picture of Him 
who has borne the cross far over the world, who 
bears it to-day for us, and whose face may be 
seen everywhere and who says though He may 
be sinking under the weight of sorrow, — " Come 
Home." 

II. Went forth. 

In all the old pictures of Atlas with the world 
upon his shoulders, he has been standing still. 
Here we have it said that Christ bearing His cross 
went forth. What else could he do? He was 
bound and led by the soldiers, the power of the 
Roman Empire was over Him, the Jews were 
against Him, His own disciples had forsaken 
Him, and urged on by the mob He must go for- 
ward. 



The Cross Bearer 185 



But look again and you will see that He went 
forth in a little different way from that which was 
usual. Of the other two who were crucified, it 
is said they were led forth to be crucified ; but of 
Christ, He went forth. He went of His own 
free will. He could have resisted them and they 
must have fled. He could have spoken and they 
must have vanished. He could have blown them 
from His presence as by a single breath ; but He 
did not. It is evident then that He had some 
great object which reached far beyond the mo- 
ment and far beyond a life of negative ease. Be- 
fore Him duty rose like the great line of hills 
which He was to climb, but in the climbing He 
should have joy and happiness. Far beyond the 
line of duty lay the place of victory, though hard 
to reach yet worth attaining. Hence He went 
forth bearing His cross. 

If we were born perfect in every way, we would 
not need the discipline of cross bearing. But we 
are quite imperfect. We must come to the nobler 
and better life by the rough road which stretches 
out toward some Calvary. To grow strong of 
hand or of limb there must be the exercise of 
those parts till the very discipline becomes our 
excellence. And when a man would have his 
faith strengthened he must have a training with 
God as his leader and teacher. 

There are children who suffer and suffer when 
they are small. Sharp pains shoot through the 
arms, limbs and whole body. A physician is called 



1 86 The Message of To-Morrow 



and he says that there is no danger for these are 
only growing pains. Life is advancing so rapidly 
and expanding so fast that it becomes in a sense 
cross bearing. So there is this growing and ex- 
panding in the Christian life which we often think 
is hard and against which we cry out in pain. 
It is to aid us in this that the Son of God has 
come, bearing His cross first as a sacrifice and then 
as the eternal presence, almighty in power. The 
more we know of Him the greater He becomes to 
us and the more helpful. 

Your mother was never so great as since she 
went to her heavenly home. You never heard her 
voice so really as now. You never before so 
enjoyed the evening songs of childhood which are 
sweeter than the songs of the angels. There, you 
can see her now, early in the morning or late in 
the evening bearing the cross of the family, yet 
joyous and happy. You are just now learning to 
know her. She is growing dearer all the time, 
and it gives you faith and hope. So when we see 
Christ going forth in the midst of all these try- 
ing scenes, never faltering, never turning back, 
we take courage and go on. Who is there that 
will now stop at a hard thing ? Who is there that 
will cry out against the human cross bearing which 
makes us more like Christ? Who will not say, 

" Jesus I may cross have taken 
All to leave and follow Thee, 
Naked, poor, despised forsaken, 
Thou from hence my all shalt be ! " 

For " He went forth bearing His cross." 



The Cross Bearer 187 



III. TO BE CRUCIFIED. 

Was there no help for this man who had never 
sinned? Must He be crucified? Yes He must. 
Old Atlas, according to the fable, continues for- 
ever to hold the world upon his shoulders, or all 
will go to ruin. " To be crucified," was Christ's 
way of sustaining the spiritual world. 

Man's natural impulse is to avoid suffering. If 
a certain course is likely to bring anxiety and 
worry, we will take the other road. If there be 
rocks beneath the waves, we place there a buoy 
and it is well that we do, for unnecessary suffer- 
ing is opposed to reason and revelation. But 
there is One who goes forth in the worst suffering 
known to man with a firm intention to bear all 
that is to be borne. This had to be done by some- 
one, for the Old Testament and weak frail hu- 
man nature are both written full of the need of a 
sacrifice. There was a justice to be satisfied, and 
more than this, passing life had to be saved. Where 
there is a rent in a garment it must be mended, 
where there is a gorge in the mountain it must 
be bridged, where there is a chasm between peo- 
ple, as between the North and the South in 1861, 
it must be filled if need be by the lives of men. 
He who went forth to be crucified saw in His own 
great act the rescue of the millions from evil con- 
ditions and the power of sin. Their danger was 
to Him very plain. The course of life thus repre- 
sented to Him, was greater than the mere preser- 
vation of His own physical life from suffering 
and sorrow. 



1 88 The Message of To-Morrow 



There is the fireman who sees the child in the 
burning building and without consulting his own 
comfort and knowing that he may suffer the ter- 
rible agonies of death by fire, rushes forward 
to save the one in danger. It is the sacrifice, the 
giving up of one's self to take the place of an- 
other. That is the meaning of this great act of 
Christ. 

For a mother who loves her child intensely it is 
far harder to see her child suffer than to bear the 
pain herself, and there is not a true mother any- 
where who would not if she could, take the af- 
fliction from the child and bear it herself. Now 
this is the case with Christ who goes forth to be 
crucified in your place and mine if we accept Him 
as our vicarious sacrifice. As soon as man sinned 
in Eden, God began to work for his recovery. 
At once a Saviour was promised and through the 
ages, until His coming, every breath of heaven 
has brought to man the same great news. For a 
time God was willing that animals in sacrifice 
should typify the sacrifice of His Son. 

He had to come not only as a sacrifice, but also 
to sanctify righteous suffering, for the world, 
in the simplest things of daily life, is redeemed 
by pain. We suffer for one another, we bear the 
pang of disappointment because another is suc- 
cessful, we buy our food with our daily toil, we 
secure a Christian character at the cost of con- 
stant watchfulness. When Ananias was told to 
go to Saul (Paul) to give him sight, after he 



The Cross Bearer 189 



had had the vision on the way to Damascus, God 
said to him, 

" Show him how great things he must suffer 
for My name's sake." And yet this suffering of 
Paul became to him a pleasure, for he received 
so great a reward. God always pays well for all 
that is done for Him. 

If we could fully understand the meaning of 
this great act of Christ there would be in every 
heart such a purpose as actuated Paul when he 
said, 

" Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel," and 
such as filled the heart of Whitefield when he 
regarded the saving of souls as the supreme act 
of human life, and of Savonarola who was willing 
to give his own life for a great cause which needed 
defense, and of Moody whose life was one long 
plea before God, for the redemption of the world. 

Who can look upon Christ as he goes forth to 
be crucified without saying, " He is going to that 
awful death for me ? " 

This must make life's trials easier to bear. As 
Christ went forth to be crucified for us, so every 
act of man is in some sense a help to others. All 
things are so bound together, and all the world 
is so sensitive that somewhere and somehow every 
act must have its effect. A boy aided with a few 
spare dollars finds his way into the ministry, and 
becomes a great power for righteousness ; and the 
small investment has brought to the world a 
blessing of untold value. An act of kindness or 



190 The Message of To-Morrow 

a word of good cheer, was to the discouraged 
the turning point and has brought a rich blessing 
to humanity. And Christ went forth to be cruci- 
fied that these streams of righteousness might 
be made to flow out into the sinful world. You 
and I pass by Calvary with only the knowledge 
of the suffering of Christ because " He bore our 
sins and carried our sorrows, in His body on the 
tree." 

" Can this be He who want to stray, 
A pilgrim on the world's highway, 
Oppressed by power and mocked by pride 
The Nazarene, the crucified?" 

Yes, this is He, for " He went forth to be 
crucified." 

Then Christ went forth to be crucified, so as 
to establish an eternal cause. Not only did He 
die for the individual but also for the great cause 
which is to win the world to Himself. The cross 
of Christ has become the banner of the great 
marching host of God. Paul said, 

" For the preaching of the cross is to them that 
perish, foolishness ; but unto us which are saved 
it is the power of God." 

In any warfare the banner must not suffer. 
Men will risk anything for the symbol of victory. 
In a battle in the war of rebellion, in this coun- 
try, a standard bearer was shot and the banner 
was falling to the ground when a comrade sprang 
forward, caught up the colours, rushed on to the 



The Cross Bearer 191 



front, in the fiercest firing of the enemy, and 
saved the day, because the soldiers followed after 
him to victory. 

So the great Captain and standard bearer of 
our salvation pressed on to Calvary with the 
standard which is to rule the world and bring all 
to the throne of God, for Christ went forth bear- 
ing His cross, to be crucified. 



XIV 



god's revelation of good and three ways of 
gaining it 

" He hath showed thee O man what is good." — Micah 
6:8. 

Then goodness is not manufactured, made by 
hand, put up in packages and sold as an article 
of commerce. It does not come from the human 
workshop, nor is it discovered by man haphazard, 
after long and diligent searching. But it is dis- 
covered, uncovered, revealed, by God Himself, for 
" He hath showed thee O man what is good." 

If a man is seeking gold, he wants to know 
where the gold fields are. If fame is his object, 
he wishes to know where it may be found. If 
he is searching for power, he wants to come into 
connection with the dynamo of the world. If he 
is seeking good (and all men should seek that), 
then he must know that its source is in God. 

But it has its issue in man, as the curse of Eden 
is produced and power revealed in verdure and 
plants and flowers of earth. 

These effects are mentioned in the text and 
are three in number. 

" And what doth the Lord require of thee," 
asks the text, " but to do justly, love mercy and 
192 



God's Revelation of Good 193 

to walk humbly before thy God." What more 
does God require of any man? Nothing more. 
If thou dost fulfill these; thy relation to thy fel- 
low men, thy relation to thyself, thy relation to 
thy God; thou wilt have the highest good. This 
is the full round of the Christian life for joy and 
happiness and triumph. 

I. DO JUSTLY. 

One would think this very easy in this land 
where the courts are established, and in almost 
constant session from the Supreme court down to 
those of the states and cities and counties and 
townships; where every store has its scales, and 
where the yard stick is on every counter and is 
almost as common an article as the broom which 
sweeps our floors. Doing justly would seem easy 
in a land where the ten commandments are written 
upon every memory and the effects of the keep- 
ing or breaking of them make up the sum total 
of our daily newspaper, from caption to conclu- 
sion. 

But even here we have to be constantly re- 
minded that for every act of justice or injustice 
in the courts or in the country, there is a court 
in session up above, before which this act will 
come for review ; that for every earthly scale that 
weighs anything, even so small as the widow's 
mite, there is another scale upon which it must 
go; for every yard stick there is a line to which 
all must be compared and by which all must be 



194 The Message of To-Morrow 

corrected; and for every interpretation of the ten 
commandments there is an eternal and unchange- 
able standard in the hand of God. 

But this refers to more than mere commercial 
transactions, even to the weighing of evidence of 
every life. There is only one tribunal that I 
know of where premature decisions are rendered, 
where on suspicion a man is judged when there 
has not been furnished the slightest evidence, and 
that tribunal is the human heart. 

If even the very best people were hanged every 
time someone misjudges them, saying, " he is 
guilty of so and so," when he may be as innocent 
as a child of anything of the kind, the world would 
be depopulated in an hour. In some of the old 
world countries the homes of people, and hence 
their lives are surrounded by high walls so that 
neither the robber of money or of character can 
get in. But here in this country our homes are 
placed right out by the highway and men as they 
go by can look in, and they do look in, but they 
see poorly and hence they go away and say they 
saw so and so, when they did not. Many of the 
spectators did not have their glasses on and hence 
they do great injustice to the person of whom they 
speak. 

To all such this text thunders " do justly/' or 
do nothing at all. 

Unjust judgments lead to unjust actions and 
hence the world becomes one of strife rather than 
of peace. Shall the consumptive take delight in 



God's Revelation of Good 195 

hearing that a neighbour has cancer and has had 
to go to the hospital for treatment, and shall he 
go about telling what he has heard? Does it 
make him any better that the other man is sick? 
Shall the man with the broken arm be glad when 
he learns that another man has a broken limb, 
and shall he write to his friend and say, " My 
broken arm is now mending fast because Mr. 
Jones has broken his limb ? " No, no, never ; and 
yet there are scenes and incidents like that every- 
where in this world of social disease. But the 
strangest part is that Mr. Consumptive has a 
relapse when he hears that it was a false report 
about his neighbour having cancer, and a dover's 
powder has to be given to the man with the 
broken arm and an extra hitch to the bandages 
when he learns that Mr. Jones did not break his 
limb at all. Some people have as their medicine 
for their own diseased minds the injustice they 
do to innocent humanity. The injustices that pass 
over the tongue are legion when compared with 
those that pass over the counter. 

To all such there rings out of the heavens these 
words of God, 

" Dost thou know O man, what God requires 
of thee, [requires, demands, will have], that 
thou shalt do justly. ' God requires that we shall 
do justly, for He has provided every facility for 
it even down to the penny weighing machines 
that stand in our stations, for even in this there 
is an idea back of the mercenary thought — that is 



196 The Message of To-Morrow 

that they shall settle the disputes that arise along 
the way. O if men would only do justly by one 
another, life would break forth with joy every- 
where, poverty would flee before the oncoming 
provision of God, as a disease flees before the 
cure; personal character would shine forth as the 
brightness of the sun; Eden would again be 
established and heaven would be begun on earth. 

O man, will you by careful life — by doing 
justly, help to usher in this blessed time? 

II. Love mercy. But we are also to love mercy. 

There are violins so perfect, that whenever the 
bow is drawn across the string, they will sing 
a perfect song. You cannot make them send out 
a harsh sound. The harmony of parts, the per- 
fection of the construction, the vibratory power 
of every part are all perfect. It is the violin's 
nature so to sing. 

This describes what God wishes of every one. 
To love mercy is to live it until you can live noth- 
ing else and can tell nothing else. The nature 
and news of life should be the same, like that of 
olden days when the bearer of good tidings was 
considered the author of the same, and the herald 
of happiness was the guest of royalty. Mercy 
then must enter into life and fill every part of 
one's nature, such mercy as would not harm 
a worm or injure a bird; such mercy as will 
bear the injustice rather than inflict it upon an- 
other, such mercy as we see in the Christ of all 



God's Revelation of Good 197 

mercy and grace. Mercy is the doing kindly even 
in spite of justice; satisfying the demands of jus- 
tice without receiving adequate pay. 

The secret of this is sacrifice ; giving up, doing 
for another, bearing and enduring for the sake 
of the one to be helped. 

Yes Mercy rules the world from man down. 
Begin with ourselves. The best illustration per- 
haps is in the brain. 

Physiological Psychologists tell us that the 
brain is composed of over 300,000,000 nerve cells. 
At a dollar apiece they would about pay the 
Spanish war debt. But I do not know any one 
who would sell so cheaply. Now the average life 
of each nerve cell in the brain is about 60 days. 
Then 5,000,000 die every day, 208,000 every hour 
and 3,500 every minute to be succeeded by a like 
number of their race. As the death of these nerve 
cells is considerably hastened by action and ten- 
sion, while I speak to you to-night about 300,000 
nerve cells die and as many more are born, and 
over a million deaths were necessary for the pro- 
duction of this sermon. Great sacrifice; and yet 
my brain does not complain. It gets nothing but 
a little nourishment and some pleasure by the way. 
It is its nature to do that, and the mercy of its 
action rules ; and in this sense it loves mercy. 

No one can properly appreciate his brain till 
he knows the sacrifices it makes for him. No 
one can understand the value of our liberty till 
he goes through the hardships of the Pilgrim 



198 The Message of To-Morrow 

Fathers landing on the rock-bound coast of New 
England and living in snow of winter and frost 
of spring because they loved mercy. 

No one can appreciate manhood till he learns 
what trials his mother endured, what hardships 
were borne and how the very life of the parents 
was laid down for the success of the boy. Yes 
mercy comes to be the world power because it 
has its highest example in a world Saviour. 

When the Southern army surrendered to Gen- 
eral Grant in 1865, the natural course would have 
been to punish them or at least to put them 
under restraint. But instead of that they were 
treated as brothers. They were told to keep their 
horses and wagons, to go home and till their 
farms. They were also helped to get a start again 
upon the land which had been overrun by the 
soldiers during the war. A whole army merci- 
fully treated. Why was that? Whether men 
know it or not it was the fulfilment of that beati- 
tude, " Blessed are the merciful for they shall 
obtain mercy." At once, our nation became fam- 
ous, and in a number of instances of international 
questions we have ruled the world, for this is the 
province of mercy. 

During the war of secession as a battle raged 
hotly a young man ran away from his post. He 
was arrested and tried and sentenced to be shot 
for desertion, though he was little more than a 
boy. His mother soon heard of the danger of 
her son and hurried to Washington to see Presi- 



God's Revelation of Good 199 

dent Lincoln. She had heard, which was true, 
that he never failed to pardon when he had the 
claims of a case presented. She reached the 
White House, when one of the most important 
cabinet meetings was in session and when the 
nation seemed to hang as by a thread, which 
might be snapped at any moment. 

Before going into the cabinet meeting the 
President told his secretary as usual not to call 
him except on one condition. He said, " keep 
senators or congressmen or any one else waiting, 
but if any one comes for a pardon for a soldier 
condemned to be shot, call me." 

The mother arrived and word was sent to the 
President. Mr. Lincoln stopped the business, 
saying, " gentlemen, this business will have to 
wait — it is a case of life and death." And the 
cabinet did wait and the nation waited till Mr. 
Lincoln went out to see the mother, pardoned her 
boy and the news in a few moments flew over the 
wires and the boy was saved. 

When the President returned he told the cabi- 
net what he had done and said, " I always think 
of those words of scripture, ' Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these ye have 
done it unto Me.' " And He who never refused 
a pardon when it was worthy, ruled the dissevered 
nation and brought the two parts together in har- 
mony. Yes he loved mercy and hence the whole 
world loved him. 

One day young Wendell Phillips sat in his 



noo The Message of To-Morrow 

office in Boston and heard a strange noise in the 
street. On looking out he saw a great mob gath- 
ering around William Lloyd Garrison, kicking 
and beating him and dragging him about because 
he wanted slavery driven from the land. All night 
long Phillips lay awake and burning with a fever 
that this man who loved liberty should have been 
mobbed in the very city where England's tea as 
well as her tyranny were destroyed. All night 
there stood before him the slave, all beaten and 
scarred and hated, and beside him stood in deep- 
est pity that One whose hands and feet had been 
pierced with the cruel nails on Calvary and the 
voice of that One whispered to him, " Inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
ye have done it unto Me." 

Then he rose up in the strength of a renewed 
manhood. Henceforth he should not seek any 
longer honour, or power, or fame, but his should 
be a life of sacrifice for the needy. And there 
was then born in him the love of mercy, which 
made, him a vastly greater man than earth could 
produce, without the vision of the Christ, the one 
who came to bring the highest mercy of God to 
man. 

Had he never looked upon the Christ, he would 
have lost the brightest vision of his life, his life 
would have lost its great motive, the world would 
have lost a hero, and heaven a saint. Look upon 
Christ. See Him as He is, gentle, beautiful, 



God's Revelation of Good 201 

merciful. Then you will love mercy and be great 
in the eyes of God. 

III. Walk humbly with thy God. 

Who would walk otherwise when he knows 
God? 

Who could have walked proudly or haughtily 
by the side of the great Queen Victoria whose 
long life so blessed the world. 

We walked by the Alps ; thousands of feet rose 
the great giant peaks ; the trees of mammoth size 
up there, looked like tufts of grass, and the brook- 
lets flung themselves forth in silver ribbons, 
changing to fringe as in spray they fell upon the 
ground. In the presence of those great hoary, 
fragrant, everlasting hills we were silent. We 
felt our littleness and we walked very humbly 
lest the mountains would learn that we were so 
small. Can any man walk by the bold jagged cliffs 
of Sinai where the law was given in thunderings 
and lightnings and feel proud? We remember 
that God said, " If so much as a beast touches a 
mountain he shall be stoned or thrust through 
with a dart." We walk humbly by the side of 
Sinai. 

Then there is Calvary which no one can ap- 
proach without fear and trembling, and yet these 
are only some of the places where God has planted 
His feet. God is greater than all these mountains 
for He made them, He made all things. " He is 



ioi The Message of To-Morrow 



infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, 
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and 
truth." Yet He walks with us, He leads us by 
the hand, and we walk humbly with Him, as a 
little child walks with his father, and we say as 
one of earth's greatest, Frances Willard, who had 
long walked with Him — when dying, 
" How beautiful it is to be with God." 



XV 



god's care 

" Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one 
of them shall not fall to the ground without your Fa- 
ther." — Matthew 10: 29. 

Who cares for the sparrows? We do not, for 
we drive them from our houses, and frighten 
them from our shade trees, and mourn the day 
when they were brought to our shores. We re- 
fuse to own them, calling them English sparrows, 
saying thereby that their home and their rights 
are beyond the sea. In England they are sorry 
for the time when the little creatures came from 
the Orient; and in the far East, their rightful 
home, they represent one of the smallest possible 
business bargains, indeed the purchase of one is 
only half a business transaction, for it required 
two of them to equal in value, the smallest coin 
of the day, " Are not two sparrows sold for a 
farthing?" 

God alone cares for the sparrow, it seems. So 
the little creature brings the much needed, but 
little heeded lesson of God's care of His people, 
203 



204 The Message of To-Morrow 

I. God's care for His people in the circum- 
stances OF LIFE. 
This was a sale of the sparrow that was per- 
fectly legal ; the money had been paid and all de- 
clared fair. What then could anyone have to say 
about it? So we are in the midst of iron-bound 
circumstances, as it would seem. Who could 
take an interest in us ? But listen. " Are not 
two sparrows sold for a farthing ? " Then God 
is interested in that sale. A record is made of 
it in the divine economy. He is also interested 
in the details of every-day life. No bargain can 
be made about you, when you may have been in- 
volved in any of the circumstances of life, that 
the infinite God is not at hand to give you help. 
God is the God of circumstances as well as of 
Providence, as He tells us in the incident of the 
sparrow. 

They thought that they had done with Paul 
the preacher of righteousness when they had 
stoned him and carried him out of the town for 
dead. But in a little while he was in their midst 
preaching again as boldly as ever. He was not 
dead, but was in the height of life. He was more 
to God than any sparrow. 

When our army, a few years ago was camped 
at Manila, they were attacked by the enemy in 
the darkness when there was raging a terrible 
typhoon, such as blinded our men, while the 
enemy were accustomed to them. " We would 
have been whipped," said one of our soldiers af- 



God's Care 



terward, " had it not been that God clave the sky 
with the lightning and gave us light by which 
we took quick aim and so drove the enemy back." 
That quick flash which at other times would have 
frightened them, was now welcomed as the means 
by which they might conquer. So in the provi- 
dence of God they won the battle, though there 
were three of the enemy to every one of our 
soldiers. Did not the God of the sparrow take 
care of our soldiers? 

Poor old Elijah flees in haste from Queen 
Jezebel whom he has defeated. She threatens 
to take his life. For the time he forgets that 
there is over all a hand ruling and governing. 
But when he has worn himself out with his trav- 
els an angel meets him and asks, 

" What doest thou here Elijah ? " And so he 
was taught how foolish he was to forget that God 
could take care of him. 

Some years ago there arose a strange character 
in this country. He came from next to nothing. 
People laughed at him, for he was awkward and 
peculiar. They sneered at his poverty. But all 
the while he went up and up. Like a balloon into 
which men have stuck pins and then expect to 
see it collapse, and yet it rises ; so he rose higher 
and higher, until he reached the Presidency. No 
one but the God of the sparrow guided him and 
brought him to this high place. If God so cares 
for the sparrow, will He not care for a President ? 

Yes God is working in the circumstances of 



206 The Message of To-Morrow 

every moment of every life, bringing about His 
own great designs. No one performs a single act 
or thinks a single thought that is not known to the 
infinite God. We think events go on regardless 
of any divine help. But it is not so. The events 
of the world are not independent of God any more 
than the record of time by any clock is indepen- 
dent of the sun. As all records of time are re- 
lated to the sun, so all records of deeds are re- 
lated to God. We go by the clock because it 
keeps time, that is it keeps the record of the sun 
before us. The sun is too bright for us to gaze 
upon, hence the timepiece represents the sun. 
So the events keep before us the One upon whom 
we can not look and live and Who is the Provi- 
dence of every life. 

But someone rises and says that his timepiece 
is set by the Greenwich time and has nothing to 
do with the sun! Yes, and where did that ob- 
servatory get its light? Why from the sun, of 
course. Hence all finally goes back to the sun as 
the final providence in time. Thus there are peo- 
ple so foolish as to say that they do not need 
God and are not dependent upon Him, when it 
is by Him that all things exist. 

" But," you ask, " How can God care for the 
little things of life?" You might as well ask 
how the watchmaker can care for the little jewel, 
which seems so unimportant and yet on which the 
wheel must be balanced. You might as well ask 
how the keen eyed watchmaker can detect the 



God's Care 



bit of dust which gets in the wheel and stops its 
action. It is his business to look out for just 
such things ; for it is not the great accidents that 
oftenest stop the timepiece, but the little bits of 
dust that seem to the common eye so harmless. 
So it is not the great sins that come to us with 
all their frightful power that we need most to 
fear, but the little things which all but the Divine 
eye may pass by There is not the slightest 
sorrow or care or woe or trouble or anxiety that 
does not concern God and which He does not 
strive to remove, as the watchmaker strives to 
have his timepiece free from the difficulties that 
may hinder its perfect action. 

It is a pretty well-known fact that most of the 
deaths that occur on the field of battle result from 
bleeding to death before surgical aid arrives. 
The French government has under consideration 
a scheme for tattooing the soldiers of the French 
army with a certain mark over each artery, so 
that a wounded man would be able to staunch 
the flow of blood himself and thus increase his 
chance of living. The soldier does not know his 
danger, and how he may be free from possibility 
of death. But the government does, and so pro- 
vides the way. So we do not know but God does, 
and cares for us. He who stands by every bar- 
gain for a sparrow's life will be with us in every 
time of trial great or small. A noted author of 
our land, some time ago received a letter in Lon- 
don with his name on the envelope and " God only 



208 The Message of To-Morrow 

knows where," as the only other mark upon it. 
The postoffice was the providence to take the mes- 
sage to him. So finally, thought the great author, 
all things come around in the right way and at 
the end, though we do not know, — who knows 
what will become of the bargain about the spar- 
row and of the sparrow itself? God only 
knows. So about the ten thousand things which 
happen to us and over which we have no control. 
" God only knows," and He will help us to the 
last. The sparrow is not sold without His notice, 
but the final issue is with Him. 

" I know not where the islands lift, 
Their fronded palms in air, 
I only know I can not drift 
Beyond His love and care." 

II. God's care for His people is always had 

IN THE IMPOSSIBLE MOMENTS. 

" One of them shall not fall." These are the 
times over which we have no control. The spar- 
row was about to be cast aside because worthless 
or dead. Who would then care for the poor thing ? 
Only God. There are certain things which we 
must do blindly. There are many times when we 
can not see. Man soon reaches his limit. Who 
will then care for him ? Only God. At two stages 
in life kind hands attend us ; when we come into 
life, and again when we go out. It is at these 
times we are so helpless. Then it is that some 



God's Care 



209 



one keeps us. In the times in life when we are 
smitten with afflictions or cut down by misfor- 
tunes and crushed by troubles, that God stands 
by and says, 

" A sparrow shall not fall without my notice 
and then will you? " " O ye of little faith." 

One of them, He divides the smallest purchase 
of man in halves and takes one of the two. If 
it had been 1,000 sold for a farthing He would 
have said " one of them." If there be 10 or 100 
or 1,000, or 10,000 in the meeting it will be one 
of them shall not miss the lessons. If there are 
1,000,000 in a city it is, "one of them shall not 
suffer, without your Father." It was the one lost 
piece of silver, the one lost sheep and the one lost 
boy that were sought in the Gospel stories in the 
fifteenth chapter of Luke; and God has never 
changed His methods. God does not say we shall 
not fall, but He does say that when we do, His 
presence and help are sufficient. 

" One of them." Then God has a concern for 
both, the one taken and the one left. They are 
supposed to be a pair of sparrows, — two sparrows 
— and shall one be taken away and feel lonely 
without God's care? God's watchfulness is so in- 
finite as that. Nor shall the separation of loved 
ones in this world, among God's children escape 
His notice. Not a pain that strikes through your 
heart, but is felt by Him ; not a pang of separa- 
tion, but has been fully measured by our God. 

The loneliness of separation in life is terrible. 



2io The Message of To-Morrow 

To be alone in a foreign city where there is no 
one who cares for you, is hard. But to be lonely 
at home where no one can understand and but 
few care, that is worse. But the infinite comfort 
is that there is a God who cares for you in every 
experience, in every wish, in every feeling. It is 
then that we understand what the Son of God 
meant when He said, " He trod the winepress of 
the wrath of God alone," and cried out on the 
cross, " My God, My God, why hast thou for- 
saken Me ? " 

Will a mother desert her own child when con- 
tagious disease has overtaken it and when no 
one else will give it care? No, no. I knew a 
mother whose eight-year-old boy was taken with 
malignant diphtheria. She took him in her arms 
and cared for him so tenderly. But in a few days 
the dreadful disease had taken hold of her and 
rapidly ran its course. So they took the little 
boy away from her. Then he asked, " Is mamma 
sick?" They said, yes. Then he asked, "Is 
mamma dead?" They said, "Yes, she is dead." 
Then he said, " Don't bury her yet for I'll go 
too." That night he went. The next day we 
laid them both away, the little boy in the arms of 
that mother who had given her life for him. And 
I thought how in some such way God's care for 
us had led Him to give the life of His Son not 
that we might die, but that we may live forever, 
— that not " one of them " may perish, but that 
all who will believe may be saved. 



God's Care 



211 



III. It is the care of our Father. 

Say to the little boy, u Harry's father is com- 
ing to-night," and he will play on. But say, 
" Your father is coming " — then see the alertness 
of form, the twinkle in the eye and hear the 
music in his voice. Your father it is who looks 
after the sparrow, and will care for you. 

He has a family interest in the dying bird, 
and will He not much more love and care for 
us? There is the canary bird. Your mother 
cares for it and feeds it, but your mother will be 
much more careful of you, the child of her love. 

You trust to the laws of nature. You laugh 
at the heat, you defy the cold, bur the heat will 
smite you as with iron hand, and the cold will 
get you at last for what is colder than the lifeless 
human form? But let your Father care for you 
and all will be well. 

Father? Yes, His care is all around you. The 
sparrow falls down when it dies, and God's hand 
is underneath. The spark flies up when it dies, 
and God's hand is above it. All round has He set 
His power. Death can not run away with His 
power. 

One shall not fall without your Father. Christ 
was constantly speaking of the Father. He never 
for a moment forgot the divine presence of His 
Father. There is not a sermon or prayer in which 
it does not occur. He says, " I and My Father 
are one." " I go to My Father," " My Father 
is greater than all." 



212 The Message of To-Morrow 

If He who cares for all things will care for us 
like a Father, how precious must life be. And 
this is true for we read, " Like as a father pitieth 
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that are 
His." 

It is our Father that stands by every falling 
bird, every failing purpose, every lost aim, every 
scene of sorrow, every mount of failure. He sends 
no delegate. He sends not merely an angel. It is 
God Himself who marks the sparrow's fall, and 
cares for every child of His, in every part of 
life. It is He who says, " I will strengthen thee, 
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the 
right Hand of My righteousness." " He careth 
for you," for " two sparrows are sold for a farth- 
ing and one of them shall not fall without your 
Father." 

" God will take care of you, be not afraid ; 
He is your safeguard through sunshine and shade 
Tenderly watching and keeping His own, 
He will not leave you to wander alone. 

God will take care of you through all the day, 
Shielding your footsteps, directing your way; 
He is your Shepherd, Protector and Guide, 
Leading His children where pure waters glide 

God will take care of you, long as you live, 
Granting you blessings, no other can give, 
He will take care of you when time is past, 
Safe to His kingdom will guide you at last. 

God will take care of you still to the end 
O what a Father, Redeemer and Friend, 
Jesus will answer, whenever you call 
He will take care of you, trust Him for all." 



XVI 



A BARGAIN WITH GOD 

" If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way 
that I shall go, and will give me bread to eat, and rai- 
ment to put on, so that I come again to my father's 
house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God." — 
Genesis 28: 20, 21. 

Jacob was fleeing from his father's house to 
escape the wrath of Esau, whose birthright he 
had taken. The favourite method of escaping 
trouble at that time seemed to be that of running 
away. Moses ran away from his people in Egypt, 
after he had killed the Egyptian who was dis- 
puting with the Israelite ; and stayed in that coun- 
try until called back at the burning bush, by the 
voice of God. Elijah ran away from Queen 
Jezebel, at the moment of his victory and her 
defeat ; and was found of God in a fit of the blues 
under the Juniper tree. David also ran off to the 
land of the Philistines where he was found act- 
ing the part of an insane man. Countless num- 
bers in every age and in every land have tried the 
same ; but all have found that God is everywhere, 
and will require a meeting with Himself some- 
where along the way. 

So when Jacob found himself in the presence 
213 



214 The Message of To-Morrow 

of God, when he was cornered and could not get 
away, he struck for a bargain. 

He had just been a party to a sharp bargain 
which beat Esau out of his right, and he was 
running away from its effects. He seemed ready 
to bargain for profit with any one, for here he 
proposes the conditions of his journey and re- 
turn. It was to be a commercial contract. Many 
a man beats Satan in business, but we do not 
read of any who beat the Almighty. It seemed 
like a sharp deal, this which he proposes. He 
was to get his board and clothing and car fare, 
(such as that was), and for this he was to re- 
turn one-tenth of all that the Lord gave him. 

" If God will be with me, and will keep me in 
the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat 
and raiment to put on, so that I come to my 
father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be 
my God, . . . and of all that thou shalt 
give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee." 

It was a very good contract — fair to both 
sides, for God accepted and entered into it. In 
the succeeding ages men have been prone to serve 
God for a material consideration. The old Saxon 
priest who heard the Gospel preached by Paul- 
inus, and who had served all the gods as they 
came along, said as he turned over to the true 
God, 

" All the gods have profited me little. Long 
years have I served them. No man has been more 
diligent than I ; and now I turn to the true God." 



A Bargain "With God 



Fortuna was the favourite deity in Rome. But 
her temple lies in ruin so deep that no hand can 
rebuild it ; and she who was supposed to give good 
fortune to others has suffered pitiable misfor- 
tune, which will last till the end of time. The 
Negros of Guinea beat their gods, and the New 
Zealanders threaten to kill and eat theirs if they 
do not bring good fortune. Even Satan acted on 
this principle of profit when he argued with God 
that Job could be tempted to profanity and faith- 
lessness. He said, " Does Job fear God for 
naught?" . . . Put forth Thine hand now, 
and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee 
to Thy face." 

But a new factor entered into this contract; it 
was that of God's part. 

I. This bargain rested on his faith in God's 

CONSTANT PRESENCE. 

" God was in this place and I knew it not," 
said Jacob. Then upon this he based his faith 
in God's presence, and said, 

" If God will be with me," etc. He had passed 
beyond the stage of food and clothing. He had 
also gone beyond the relation of buyer and seller, 
and sustained relation of sovereign and subject. 

It was this relation which now took hold of him. 
The sovereign is everywhere present in his power. 
No man can lie down, or rise again, or carry on 
business without the overshadowing presence of 
the king. Jacob was still in God's country and 



216 The Message of To-Morrow 

had greater obligation than merely eating or 
drinking or travelling. It was the relationship 
of king and subject which had its force in the 
nature of eternal things. 

So there are higher relationships to-day be- 
tween God and man than the mere bargain for the 
daily food. Man's bargain with God for his 
daily supply is in his willingness and in his op- 
portunity to use his muscle, his hand, and his 
brain. God will respond to every such bargain 
with a blessing of food and raiment and means 
of livelihood as with Jacob. But it does not end 
there. There may come a time in your lives when 
you will not be able to work, then who will look 
after you? There may come a time when your 
life may be attacked, then who is to do you jus- 
tice; a time when there must be a judge in the 
case and who will then plead your cause ? If you 
are a citizen of this nation the final authority 
is in the President, for after all he is the centre 
of authority and has the pardon power over any 
state in the nation. Yet he rarely ever uses that 
power, but it is used for him by others every- 
where in the country. So finally every question 
resolves itself to the relation between you and 
the sovereign power in the President; and that 
sovereign power is always present. 

So it became a question between Jacob and his 
God and he said, " God is in this place and I 
knew it not ; and if God will be with me." — 

So we have a sovereign, our God, who though 



A Bargain With God 



217 



He does not step out and show himself whenever 
we have a little trouble, any more than the Presi- 
dent of the United States does, yet He as truly 
sways us by His power delegated to others in our 
behalf; and we say, 

" Truly God is in this place." 

We do not see this source of power and help, 
but that does not matter. The roots of life are 
all out of sight. It is so with the little violet 
humbly looking up from the wayside; it is so 
with the giant oak which sways in the storm ; 
it is so with the musician, who in private studies 
with the teacher, and after long practice comes 
out in the grand recital; so with the orator, his 
practice is all out of sight ; and when he comes 
upon the platform to please and profit, they ask, 
" How does he do it ? " Yet no one can tell. 
Roots are not intended to show, and if they do, 
the natural impulse is to cover them over. All 
sources of life are hidden and yet real and pres- 
ent. Then why should we demand that God the 
great source of all life should come out and show 
Himself and His methods before we believe in 
Him, when nothing else does? It is unreason- 
able. He never will, and we are too sensible to 
demand it. We are then, ready to say with Jacob 
" God is in this place and I knew it not." 

The great question is that of knowledge. If 
we had sufficient knowledge on all hands we would 
have plenty of faith; rather then, we would not 
need faith. 



2i 8 The Message of To-Morrow 



The other day a little boy saw his father walk- 
ing about in his library, as though searching for 
something. And the child four years old said, 
" Papa what are you hunting for ? " and the father 
replied in one word, " knowledge." The child 
at once replied with the assurance of a philos- 
opher, " I'll find you knowledge," and going to 
the book shelves he took down a large book and 
handing it to his father said, " Here is knowl- 
edge," and it was just the book the father needed. 
It proved to be the Bible. 

So there are statesmen and orators and philos- 
ophers and scientists who are groping about for 
something that is lacking and when the child of 
God hands him the key to the situation in life, 
he says with Jacob, " I never before knew this. 
God is in this place." 

This knowledge must be a fact in life and not 
merely about it. We are passing through a period 
of uncut edges in literature. There are many 
who like their Harpers, their Centuries, their 
McClures, and all the rest, in the most approved 
style. They like to run the paper knife along 
the edges and see the pages open. There has 
been a long period of uncut edges in spiritual 
things, when the volumes of life have been doubly 
bound, that is, in the back and the front, and 
pages only opened in bunches. It was so with 
Jacob. It has been so with many others, and 
the cry has been, that God is in this place. 

This knowledge is coming by way of the myri- 



A Bargain With God 



219 



ads of Christian workers who are living the 
knowledge of God to the world. The edges of 
the book of life, have been cut and there is be- 
fore us an open book of testimony that God is 
in this place to abide with us. O that the whole 
world may know this, that the power of beauty 
and sublimity and mercy and love may become 
supreme, that all the war that is known shall be 
the fighting of light against darkness, of heat 
against cold, of summer against winter, of purity 
against impurity, of eternal and purified life 
against death, for God is in this place to help and 
strengthen. 

II. This bargain rested on Jacob's loyalty 
to God. 

" Then shall the Lord be my God," said Jacob. 
This was to settle his whole future. He had come 
in line with the providence of God. 

Nations have their treaties and alliances by 
which their relations are maintained and their 
future is decided, such as the treaty of Ghent, 
and the Triple alliance. 

This was Jacob's alliance with God by which 
their relations are to be peacefully maintained as 
long as Jacob should live. It is a question of 
allegiance, ad lego — to bind together. Thus Jacob 
was bound by his promise to the true service of 
that God whom he had learned to trust. 

It was everything to Jacob that his life was 
linked to a greater life. Before him his future 



1 20 The Message of To- Morrow 

lay beautiful and grand. It is everything to a 
man to have his relations in life established. A 
man is great in the business and professional life, 
according to his connections. A man who repre- 
sents a company, has the force and power of that 
company at his command. A man who belongs to 
a nation may command the force of that govern- 
ment if need be to protect him in a foreign land. 
So a man's alliance with God places him in pos- 
session of such a power, that he, like Jacob, may 
go even into the greatest dangers of a desert land 
and have no fear. If God protects a man and 
gives him bread and raiment and help, he ought 
to be loyal. Any man who is not, deserves only 
condemnation and banishment. 

Jacob realized the greatness of his companion- 
ship with God. It is much in favour of the boy 
to be with a great strong father that he may learn 
by constant precept, the true type of manhood 
which he sees in that father. 

It is vastly in favour of the man who can bring 
his life so under God's law and God's salvation 
by his belief in Christ, that he can say with all 
the power of his nature, " The Lord shall be my 
God," for he then has strength, and his future 
is secure, though it may not be just what he plans 
and wishes. 

A few days ago a little girl, four years old is 
said to have travelled all the way from Fort 
Worth, Texas, to New York City alone and un- 
attended. How? Well, the mother of the child 



A Bargain With God 22 1 



wrote upon a tag the address of the destination 
of the child, and by it these words, "Please do 
not let me go astray/' that child was labelled and 
marked. It is said that on all the trains in which 
she travelled people vied with one another to show 
her kindnesses and the ladies so strove together 
that the conductor at times would designate those 
who should do the kindnesses for the child, in the 
evening and in the morning. 

" Fortunate child," you say. How could she 
go astray? The secret is, the child was well 
marked, and like Jacob of old no one did her 
harm but all helped her on her journey. 

Young men and young women go out from 
their homes by the thousand, these days to the 
great cities, and have a hard battle unless they 
are definitely and decidedly furnished with the 
mark which all will respect, " Do not let me go 
astray," as in the case of the child. 

" The Lord shall be my God," is the word 
which makes a man secure. Some have it in the 
face, others in the kind word, others in the gen- 
erous deed, others in the whole nature. But 
somehow in the presence of this power of God 
the profane jest, the low remark, the evil thought, 
are out of place, and will soon disappear. One 
of such noble life is safe on any journey. All 
unite to help them safely through this world. 

The sun has set his mark upon forest, field and 
flower and makes a gallery of the clouds, by im- 
posing upon them his nature. So God writes His 



222 The Message of To-Morrow 



changing story in the lives of men who will swear 
allegiance to Him, and may this be our lasting 
bargain with God, that He shall set His mark upon 
us clear and plain so all may see, 

" Do not let me go astray." 
"The Lord shall be my God." 

" This was the Bethel, where, on stony bed, 

While angels went and came from morn till even, 
Our truer Jacob laid His wearied head; 
This was to Him the very gate of heaven. 

" Yes ; death's last hope, his strongest fort and prison, 
Is shattered, never to be built again; 
And He, the mighty captive, He is risen, 
Leaving behind the gate, the bar, the chain." 

III. The pledge of the bargain, was a gift 
from Jacob to God, of one-tenth of all 
that he should receive. 

" And of all that Thou shalt give me, I will 
surely give the tenth unto Thee." 

That was a fair bargain and God accepted it. 
Jacob was at least honest enough to pay interest 
on his gifts, and that is more than most men are 
willing to do. 

Jacob's religion never did him any good till 
he began to pay for it. No man's religion is 
worth the snap of his finger unless he pays for 
it. It is not that God needed the amount here 
stated, for he could create worlds by the word of 
power. But it is that Jacob was to receive the 



A Bargain With God 223 

benefit. There is no parent that delights in see- 
ing the child take the blessings of home without 
being thankful. There is no business institu- 
tion that will give out money without the return 
of a fair interest. There is a feeling everywhere 
that anything that is worth having is worth 
paying for at least in some small way. The rea- 
son why more people do not have a better re- 
ligious life is because they do not pay enough 
for it. They have no investment there and how 
can they expect a return? How can any man 
expect to get blessings without some return. 
There is no such thing in the universe. God has 
written the law of compensation which is as in- 
exorable as the law of gravity. If one gives, he 
shall receive. If he does not, he shall not. " If a 
man does not work, neither shall he eat," is the 
divine decree. " By the sweat of thy brow shalt 
thou eat bread," said God long ago. It would 
not be a good or a right thing for a man to re- 
ceive blessings without paying for them, for he 
would grow unappreciative and forgetful of his 
God. All people then who eat of God's bounty 
should be at least as honest as Jacob. Men cry 
out against the church, forgetting that the reason 
why the church seems to them so barren is be- 
cause they have done nothing and paid nothing 
for the great cause. Great gifts have indeed been 
given, but how much mightier would be the Gos- 
pel of Christ if all men would pay only a small 
amount as did Jacob. 



224 The Message of To-Morrow 

Notice now how God set His seal on this bar- 
gain by the boundless blessings which Jacob re- 
ceived. He grew rich and great and returned to 
his own land. 

There is no better investment than that 
given to the great cause of God. By two great 
agencies the world is to be brought to Christ, 
that is, by consecrated money, and consecrated 
men. 

May the world speedily learn this great lesson 
by which Jacob, so wisely profited; and then the 
universal vision will be far beyond what Jacob 
first saw, even as beautiful as the poet represents 
his final view of God's glory. 

"I saw again. Behold! Heaven's open door; 
Behold! a throne, — the Seraphim stood o'er it, 
The white-robed elders fell upon the floor, 
And flung their crowns before it. 



" Who dreams of God when passionate youth is nigh, 
When first life's weary waste his feet have trod — 
Who seeth angel's footfalls in the sky, 
Working the works of God; 

" His sun shall fade as gently as it rose, 

Through the dark woof of death's approaching night 
His faith shall shoot, at life's prophetic close, 
Some threads of golden light. 

" For him the silver ladder shall be set — 

His Saviour shall receive his latest breath, 
He walketh to a fadeless coronet, 

Up through the gate of death." 



XVII 



THE MAN OF FAITH 

" Now faith." — Heb. u: I. 

Faith is the great cohesive force in human life, 
for it grasps and holds all things in order. The 
child has faith in his parents, the boy has faith 
in his own ability, the farmer in the seasons, the 
seaman in the stars and his compass, the business 
man in his opportunities and the Christian in his 
God. Faith discovered America, is the parent 
of all inventions, the author of all books, has 
planted Christianity in all lands and reaches out 
invisible hands from the future for us to grasp 
and hold. It is represented everywhere in the 
Bible and in the world as the power of powers; 
as in the last seven verses of this eleventh chapter 
of Hebrews, where it is said that faith subdued 
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the 
mouths of lions, and a hundred other things. 
And also in that world-famous saying. " This is 
the victory which overcomes the world even your 
faith." 

How then could God represent this power to 
man? Not in words, for man would not fully 
understand. Not in a single individual for man 
could not believe him, for that was done in 
Jesus of Nazareth. But it is presented in the 
225 



226 The Message of To-Morrow 

best way in different forms and in different per- 
sons, in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. 

Ideal manhood can not be better represented 
in a single way than in Westminster Abbey. 
There may be found the memory of the most 
noted poets and philosophers and scientists and 
orators and doctors and preachers and kings and 
queens. Gather now the best from all of these 
and you have the greatest material for the man 
of faith. 

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is the West- 
minster of the Bible, for here the Almighty has 
gathered the best out of all the past in the per- 
sons of Old Testament history as models for the 
man of faith, and this " now faith " with which 
the chapter begins, pushes open the door into this 
temple of immortal fame. 

Here we shall study the man of faith in the 
lives of seven great men. In each of these men- 
tioned in this sacred story the supreme power of 
his life is chosen and the combination of all of 
these forms the man of faith as God sees him. 

I. Sacrifice is the first power of the man of 
faith and is found in Abel. " By faith Abel 
offered to God a more excellent sacrifice 
than Cain, by which he obtained witness 
that he was righteous . . . and by it be- 
ing dead yet speaketh." (v. 4.) 
In our day foolish people have changed this 

word sacrifice to mean the giving up, under pro- 



The Man of Faith 



227 



test, of anything without hope of return or re- 
ward. Religion is considered by them as a beggar 
or a thief, which takes away all that is pleasant, 
and leaves only the unpleasant without either 
the ability or the will to reward. Money placed 
in the collection basket is too often given as it 
might be hurled into the sea and considered gone 
forever and is called a sacrifice. 

A very wealthy lady said to a friend after 
giving a few dollars to a great cause, " There, 
I am glad I am rid of that bitter dose." But 
God's bitterness must have been infinitely greater 
in view of what He had given her, and in view 
of the fact that that was almost the sum total 
of her gifts. And yet she called that a sacrifice. 

Such people never seem to see that life is a 
constant giving up, whether one is on God's side 
or not. Indeed that is the rule of nature. The 
apple tree gives up one hundred blossoms for 
every perfected apple, and the mother and father 
give a thousand ministries to their children for 
every return of kindness. 

But the rule of divine sacrifice is different. Its 
very meaning is to make sacred; hence it does 
not always pay in money, but usually in char- 
acter, which seems harder to get than money, and 
is infinitely better. 

In all the wreck of worlds, character will stand 
unmoved and unshaken. God Himself can not 
destroy it and can not even change it unless by 
the will of the owner. Sacrifice makes sacred 



228 The Message of To-Morrow 



because it is a giving up to God, a touch of the 
hand which brings the holy life. It was so with 
Abel, for he gained an immortal character of 
nobility and an immortal fame, for " he being 
dead yet speaketh." It was so with Christ Him- 
self who is the final embodiment of all sacrifice. 

II. Pleasing God, is the second great power of 
the man of faith, and has its embodiment 
in Enoch. " By faith Enoch . . . had 
this testimony that he pleased God." (v. 
5-) 

This is a man-pleasing age. The average man 
tries first of all to please himself, then others, 
then his God, if he has any time left. Man wants 
everything to please him and he is angry with 
God unless the divine decrees seem to work in 
his favour. He would fain have the terms re- 
versed in the answer to the first question of the 
Shorter Catechism, so as to read, 

" The chief end of God is to glorify man and to 
enjoy him forever." 

The exact opposite of this is the secret of true 
greatness. The happiness of the world depends 
on how well we please God. This is the highest 
standard of excellence, for God is our Father 
and as a mere policy it is wise to please a father. 

The children in their joys and sorrows in the 
family have an influence upon the parents, and 
every traveller is cheered or discouraged by the 
smile or frown upon the face of the man whom 
he meets but once along the way. How much 



The Man of Faith 



229 



more then is the great sensitive nature of God 
moved by the conditions of life which are pleas- 
ing or displeasing to Him. Like Enoch we are 
to come into this condition of pleasing God. 

Fra Angelico failed in painting the Inferno, 
because he was not acquainted with that kind of 
life. But he succeeded gloriously in painting 
Paradise because he led a life which pleased God. 
This was the great principle which brought us 
safely through the war of the rebellion in our 
own land. President Lincoln several times was 
asked to have days of prayer appointed to plead 
with God to be on our side. He always replied 
that it was more important for us to know that 
we are on God's side. To be on God's side is 
to be in harmony with His plan and will. This 
made Enoch and Isaiah, and Moses and Paul and 
ten thousand others great. This is to walk with 
God as did Enoch. There are musical instru- 
ments which are hardly ever in tune, and if they 
are tuned properly they will go off again before 
one selection is finished. There are such people 
in the world. They are hardly ever in tune with 
their Maker and can seldom be played upon by 
the divine hand. It must make God angry, to 
have such creatures differ with Him, and to rise 
up and say that He does not know, — that His 
word is not His word and that He did not know 
what He said when He wrote it, and could not 
keep without error what He had written. Would 
it not be strange for a crying infant to try to tell a 
man how to write a book or build a house, or 



230 The Message of To-Morrow 

cast up the accounts in the ledger? And yet 
there would be more sense in that than for man 
to attempt to tell God how to write His Bible. 
There are men who are ready with just such 
instruction. How much better to be in tune with 
God, to please Him as did Enoch. 

There is a great painting which represents the 
workman standing with hammer in hand, ready 
to bring the great bell which he is making into 
tune. The tone for the bell is given by an in- 
strument, in the hand of one, who as he strikes 
the strings looks up as though the sound was to 
come from the sky. Now when the bell has the 
key and is in tune, it will never change so long 
as it is a bell. Strike it by day or night, by 
summer or winter, in heat or in cold, and it sings 
the same clear, sweet, unchanging song. The bell 
has been raised above all conditions of heat and 
cold that surround it, when it is brought into tune. 
So we are brought into harmony with heaven and 
lifted above the conditions of earth that sur- 
round us, that we may please God, uniting with 
Christ in the great aim of His life when He said, 
" I do always the things that please the Father." 

III. Fear, is the third great power of the man 
of faith, and is represented in Noah, who 
" through fear prepared an ark for the 
saving of himself and house." (v. 7.) 
There was danger ahead and he was warned 

to avoid it. A religion that does not warn of 



The Man of Faith 



impending danger is a snare and a delusion. As 
elsewhere, so here, God has set a signal of warn- 
ing at every danger point. He has set the buoys 
all along the sea of life that we may know the 
safe course. Why do you avoid the fire? Be- 
cause you fear you may be burned. Why do you 
not drink poison willingly? Because you know 
it will kill. Why do you not tempt the murderer ? 
Because you fear he may take your life. Why 
do you not tamper with sin? Because it is more 
deadly and dangerous than all of these. Every 
man has some mighty torrents to face, and they 
roll their waves higher and higher. Yet in this 
there is nothing to affright more than the flood 
of Noah's day frightened him. When God tells 
us there is danger in the poison of sin in any 
form, we should be afraid of its presence and 
power and so avoid it as did Noah in his right- 
eous fear. In this we have the saying of the Holy 
One, when He says, " Fear not them which kill 
the body, but rather fear Him who is able to 
cast both soul and body in hell." 

IV. Obedience is the fourth great power of the 
man of faith, as found in Abraham. " By 
faith Abraham . . . obeyed and went 
out not knowing whither he went." (v. 
8.) 

It is a hard thing to go forward in absolute 
darkness. But it can be done. In doing this 
Abraham did no more than is done every day by 



1232 The Message of To-Morrow 

the man learning mathematics. His evidence 
comes only as he goes on. He first obeys the laws 
of mathematics and then he becomes their master 
and works as he will. 

A few years ago a test was made of the various 
penitentiaries of this country and it was found 
that ninety per cent, of all the inmates gave as 
the principal cause of their ruin, disobedience to 
parents. 

A man who disobeys the law of God, — as surely 
finds himself in trouble. To him life is all cor- 
ners, and he is forever knocking against them. 
It is a wicked fallacy that we are absolutely free 
and can do as we please. It would not be best 
of it were true. Obedience is the law of order 
and happiness. 

John Ruskin expresses this, emphasizing the 
great Bible truth when he says that with a foun- 
dation of a cathedral provided, all the rest is 
obedience. In building the walls one must obey 
the law of gravity. In rearing the arch, one must 
obey the law of resistance. In lifting the tower, 
one must obey the laws of symmetry and propor- 
tion. So we see that man builds not as he wills, 
but in obedience to these laws of the universe. 
Why, the planets are not independent, but they 
must obey the sun. The tides go and come, not 
as they please, but are led by the moon. The 
rivers must keep within their channels. The dead 
leaf, because it can no longer obey any other 
force, is pulled down from the tree by gravity 



The Man of Faith 



233 



or whisked off by the wind, and death sets to 
work with nimble fingers to pull it to pieces. So 
obedience is the great law of all life from Adam 
and Abraham down. Even Christ asserted His 
loyalty to God when He said, " I came not to do 
My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." 
Adam in Eden disobeyed; Christ in Gethsemane 
and on Calvary obeyed. Which will you take as 
your example? 

V. The future is the fifth great power of the 
man of faith. " By faith Isaac blessed 
Jacob and Esau concerning things to 
come." (v. 20.) 
This was the father's last will and testament. 
A man can easily will to his son land and estates, 
but how can he give him the future? If every 
father could bequeath a definite successful future 
to his son, what a changed world this would be! 
Isaac could not do that, nor can any father now, 
but this expresses the importance of the ques- 
tion of the future. It is this foresight of faith 
that throws out the picket line further and fur- 
ther, and sends spies on ahead to bring in an 
encouraging report. It is this " concerning things 
to come " that makes to-morrow, and next week 
and next year and eternity, interesting. It pushes 
open every door of possibility and clears away 
the clouds, that hope may shine bright in the day 
of gloom. It assures the fulfillment of all our 
highest hopes and greatest promises of the Bible. 



234 The Message of To-Morrow 

It is this foresight of faith, which leads on as 
one lost in the forest, is led by the shining of a 
newly found light, as Christian in Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress saw the bright light at the gate of the ce- 
lestial city. It was the same that led the Son of 
God to say, 

" Behold, ye shall see greater things than 
these," when the Son of God shall come in power 
and great glory. " Things to come " — the fore- 
sight of faith is the fifth great power of the man 
of faith. 

VI. Worship is the sixth great power of the 
man of faith, and is represented in Jacob 
who, "blessed the two sons of Joseph, 
leaning on the top of his staff." (v. 21.) 

It is worship that blesses the world. It is the 
generating force for all hope and faith, the elec- 
tric battery which holds the power till it goes 
forth on its mighty mission. Worship brings an 
intimate acquaintance with God. Worship is the 
sun which cheers the world with its light, the 
rain which refreshes the soil, which deserves the 
Almighty's wrath. God said He would save 
Sodom if only ten righteous persons could be 
found. And there is many a city and many a 
man who may thank God's worshipping people 
for mercy and life. Sweep away all churches 
and all the places of worship, refuse man the 
upward look, never allow him to turn his ear to 
catch a sound of the voice of his Maker, cast a 



The Man of Faith 



2 35 



cloud over the sky so thick that even hope can 
not go through, erase from memory all thoughts 
of God, and you will have a world as though 
without an atmosphere, a land without a shade, 
a forest without a rustling leaf or moving bough, 
a humanity without a smile, a life without a hope, 
a world of woe and not a world of worship. 
Which would you rather have? It is worship 
that heals a stricken world, for Christ comes and 
asks, " Wilt thou be made whole ? " Worship 
then is the sixth power of the man of faith. 

VII. Choice is the seventh (the perfect num- 
ber) great power of the man of faith, and 
Moses is its embodiment, for he " chose 
rather to suffer with the people of God,'' 
(v. 25) than to be king of Egypt. 
This is the decision of destiny, and of all God's 
creation is the exclusive prerogative of man. It 
is the selecting of a definite course to be forever 
followed. No man drifts into goodness any 
more than a ship drifts safely into port from a 
surging sea. Choice is the helm of the ship which 
is set firm and strong for a definite harbour. It 
was not easy for Moses to make this choice, but 
it was for life and when he looked upon his des- 
tiny, he dared not turn back, and so he became 
the world's greatest law-giver and God's mighty 
servant. It is choice that changes a boy into a 
man, moves the business of the world along a 
secure plane, and makes giants in a day. Thus the 



236 The Message of To-Morrow 

Davids become greater than the Goliaths, Moses 
greater than Pharaoh, Paul greater than Nero, and 
the true Christian greater than any earthly king; 
for ye are more than conquerors, through Christ 
who loved us and gave Himself for us. Choice 
is the crowning power of the completed man. By 
it he may enter heaven and become a king, a 
priest unto God, through Christ the Saviour. 

" Once to every man and nation, 

Comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife 'twixt truth and falsehood, 

For the good or evil side, 
And the choice goes by forever 

'Twixt the darkness and the light." 



XVIII 



GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD 

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but ha.ve everlasting life. — St. John 3: 16. 

So beautiful and so perfect is this text, that to 
preach from it seems almost like an attempt to 
deepen the colour of the violet, or to brighten the 
burnished gold, or to add lustre to the newly cut 
diamond, or to polish the swift flying sunbeam. 
Yet we are justified in this study by the fact that 
we do not try to add anything of human word 
or thought, but rather to take from it the great 
life lessons. 

This is the best known and most loved of all 
the verses in the Bible. To everyone it is some- 
thing, to some it is everything. To one it is like 
the love call of the bird to its mate, when lost 
in the forest. To another it is like the opening 
day with reddening sky and bursting light, the 
revealer of unnumbered blessings. To another 
it is like the sun shining, in all his noonday 
glory; and to another it is like the opening of 
the door of heaven. 

It has brought peace to the human hearjt in 
every land for eighteen hundred years. Yet its 
237 



238 The Message of To-Morrow 

message is always new. The sweet perfume from 
the rose, which you now enjoy is not the same 
as that of yesterday, though it may seem the 
same. The light flashed from the diamond and 
flying from the sun at this instant is not the 
same as that of a moment ago, though the eye 
may not detect the difference. So this text has 
new lessons for us though it has filled the world 
with peace, and charmed the soul of man for cen- 
turies. 

Every one should be interested in this text 
for it contains as its subjects the three greatest 
persons of time and eternity ; that is, God, Christ, 
and man ; and because it contains as its predicates 
the three greatest acts of time and eternity — that 
is God loving, Christ saving and man believing 
and being saved. It is this double trinity of truth 
which is now to engage our attention. 

I. God so loved the world. 

You might write, in a general way, as a com- 
pletion of that phrase, everything good in the 
world, for all good is the act of God because He 
loves us. 

God so loved the world that He arranged the 
times, and seasons, and provided the winds, and 
the seas and the tides, and the balancing of all 
forces. God so loved the world that He has sown 
the seeds of good broadcast in the earth, so that 
though there be briars and thorns, there are also 
lilies and roses; though there be weeds and 



God So Loved the World 239 

thistles there are also grains and grasses; and 
over them waves like a banner, and in them like 
a safe-locked gem is this promise that while man 
lives, seed time and harvest, summer and winter 
shall never cease. 

God so loved the world that though there be 
weeping and wailing in one home, in ten are 
heard the sound of singing and the shout of 
gladness. 

God so loved the world that His own people 
shall not stand on the brink of earth's rivers and 
tasting say with those of long ago — Marah, it is 
bitter, for the tree of life has been cast in, and 
the water is sweet. 

God so loved the world, that His people shall 
not stand one or five thousand strong, and faint 
of hunger when they have followed their Master, 
as did those of His own day, to hear His word, 
but they shall all be fed and there shall be many 
basketsfull remaining. 

God so loved the world that in the ten com- 
mandments He has set a bound to every human 
action, and says, as to the waves of the sea, 

" Thus far shalt thou come and no further, 
and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." 

God so loved the world that He has made His 
Word so plain that he who runs may read; 
that is, that he who rushes to his business 
in the morning and rushes back again in the 
evening, may read the truth as easily as he reads 
the sign boards along the way. 



240 The Message of To- Morrow 

And all this that the greatest act of His infinite 
love might be a success among men, that He 
might send His only begotten Son who came 
between us and God's righteous wrath. Someone 
had to come between, if we were to live. Adam 
in Eden proved this when he hid away from the 
presence of God putting the trees and even the 
leaves between himself and his God. Every man 
proves this who tries to put time or space or 
his own thought or anything between himself 
and his God. So God puts His own Son between 
His wrath and us. It is like the son, who in the 
home has wantonly violated his privileges and 
dishonoured his parents ; when every impulse of 
justice says, " Smite, smite," and yet love holds 
back the father's hand and he says, " Mother, you 
go and talk to him till my anger cools." And the 
mother becomes the intercessor. So when the 
anger of God was justly aroused, He sent His 
Son to help us, and when He had to strike as 
He did, Christ, instead of us, received the blow. 

So in this greatest act of Christ, in the best 
way, He reveals God. It is the full sized picture 
of the Almighty restraining His anger, not be- 
cause He is moody and petulant but because He 
is great and strong, and hates sin. Greater than 
to smite is it to have the power to smite, when 
that would be just, and yet to withhold the hand 
and give blessings instead. It is this mighty love 
of God that put Christ between Himself and us 
and made Him to bear our sins and suffer for 



God So Loved the World 241 

us in our place. He is indeed our intercessor, 
going — staying — between ; for we are told that He 
is at the right hand of the Father forever to in- 
tercede. Man loves the world for what he can 
get out of it. God loves the world for what He 
can put into it, and hence He sent His best, His 
only begotten Son. Such love goes beyond the 
measure of the surveyor's chain, surpasses all the 
possible computations of Euclid, has a wider 
swing than the sun and stars, outruns man's 
fleetest imagination outflies God's swiftest 
angels. It is God's infinite love which is so great 
that it touches all life somewhere and somehow. 

" Could we with ink the ocean fill, 

Were the whole world of parchment made, 
Were every single stick, a quill, 

And every man a scribe; 
To write the love of God alone 

Would drain the ocean dry, 
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, 

Though stretched from sky to sky." 

II. He gave His only begotten Son. 

A little German girl, it is said, went into her 
father's printing office one day, when they were 
printing the Bible, and taking up a piece of paper 
from the floor read, " For God so loved the 
world that He gave," — then she stopped for the 
rest was torn away. So she went to her father 
to have him finish the sentence. And when she 
had heard all, she said she thought it was strange 



i\i The Message of To-Morrow 

that God should give anything and especially His 
Son, the best He had. 

It is to read the rest of the sentence that we 
are here. 

God gave, not sold, His Son. It cost Him a 
great deal. So far as we know this is the only 
thing that cost God greatly and this cost Him the 
most. Look around and you will see that nature 
cost Him little or nothing. It was a pleasure to 
Him to create the worlds, sending them forth, 
each into its appointed place ; for He merely spoke 
and it was done. Providence, sustaining and pro- 
viding for all things costs Him nothing for that 
is His nature. So generous is His great heart, 
that He provides for and takes care, sometimes 
in the best way, of His worst enemies. He likens 
Himself to the sun which shines on the evil and 
on the good; and to the rain which falls on the 
just and unjust. Yes, His providence is His 
nature. 

But when you come to His grace, you find 
that it cost Him, not only the coming of His 
Son into the world, away from the glories of 
heaven, but also the disgrace of His most hu- 
miliating death. 

Hence it is that God suffers when He yearns 
over the sinner, as is proved by the most vivid 
pictures in the Bible ; as when David cries out for 
his son Absalom who had been fighting against 
him and who had driven the old king here and 
there as a fugitive, when he was a righteous king, 



God So Loved the World 243 

" O Absalom, Absalom, would God I had died 
for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son." So God 
suffers. Again we have the picture in Luke the 
fifteenth chapter where the father of the prodigal 
watches all that time for his wayward boy — look- 
ing and longing for his return. He sees him 
afar off before anyone else ever sees him, and 
His great heart cries out in gladness when the 
son comes. So God does not wish that any 
should perish but that all should come and be 
saved. 

Lately there has appeared in the world a living 
wonder, a mere girl, Helen Keller, deaf, dumb, 
and blind, who has gone into the literary world 
and walked among the most difficult problems, as 
a florist would walk in a garden of roses. She 
has carried off nearly all the prizes in sight of 
people who had good eyes, as easily as Sampson 
carried off the gates of Gaza. But more wonder- 
ful is Miss Sullivan who teaches Helen Keller, 
for she undertook the apparently hopeless task of 
waking a sleeper, to whom she could not call for 
she was deaf, whose voice she could not hear be- 
cause she is dumb, and who seemed in every way 
beyond human reach. But Miss Sullivan had a 
pity and a love for her so she made the attempt. 
At first Miss Keller resisted every attempt until 
Miss Sullivan had to conquer her by physical 
force. Night and day for seven long weeks she 
watched by her side to catch the first sign of 
life in that seemingly dead soul. It was the 



244 The Message of To-Morrow 

hardest work she ever did, she says; but at the 
end of that time the sleeper began to stir, then 
to arise, then life became a tremendous power. 
It was like one clothed with new endowments. 
She hungered, and almost fought for more 
knowledge until they had to restrain her eager- 
ness. 

So God comes in His sympathy and love to 
rouse us from the dead. How hard it is — only 
infinite love could stand the strain, for He comes 
to us while we are dead in trespasses and sins 
and bears with us, not for seven weeks alone, but 
for months and years, yea for life. At first we 
are obstinate and sullen, like the blind girl, then 
we begin to feel the new life coming in, then we 
hunger and thirst for the things we once hated; 
and rising up into new life, we love the God who 
so loved us as to give His only begotten Son that 
we might live. 

Is God touched with our needy condition? 
Will God save us? 

What can it mean? Is it aught to Him 
That the nights are long and the days are dim? 
Can He be touched by the griefs I bear 
Which, sadden the heart and whiten the hair? 
Around His throne are eternal calms 
And strong glad music of happy psalms, 
And bliss unruffled by any strife- 
How can He care for my poor life? 



And yet I want Him to care for me, 
While I live in the world where sorrows be. 



God So Loved the World 245 



When the lights die down on the path I take, 
And strength is feeble and friends forsake, 
When love and music that once did bless, 
Have left me to silence and loneliness ; 
And life's-song changes to sobbing prayers — 
Then my heart cries out for the God who cares. 

When shadows hang o'er me the whole day long, 
And my spirit is bowed with shame and wrong, 
When I am not good and the deeper shade 
Of conscious sin makes my heart afraid; 
And the busy world has too much to do 
To stay in its course to help me through; 
And I long for a Saviour — can it be 
That the God of the universe cares for me? " 

O wonderful story of deathless love, 

Each child is dear to the Heart above, 

He fights for me when I can not fight, 

He comforts me in the gloom of night, 

He lifts the burden for He is strong, 

He stills the sigh and wakens the song, 

The sorrows that bow me down He bears, 

And loves and pardons, because He cares." 

III. Everlasting life. " That whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him should not perish but have 
everlasting life.'^ 

Everlasting life? You could not expect less 
of an everlasting God. He gives it on two ever- 
lasting principles, that of His own love, " For 
God so loved," and that of His Son's life, " That 
He gave His only begotten Son." 

To keep the temporal life going man spends 
six days out of seven — and some spend the sev- 



246 The Message of To-Morrow 

enth also, — 313 out of 365 days, and then the 
body almost breaks down and often comes with 
clatter and clank, like an old conveyance to each 
succeeding mile post, barely making the goal. 

But everlasting life is like the mariner who 
stands on the bridge of his ship, braving the 
storms that come and go, heeding not the rocks 
that are hidden in the watery ways of the deep, 
for he is sure he will enter the homing port. It 
is like the eagle that rises from the shadowy wood- 
land, and in defiance of earth's conditions, swings 
itself into the higher air, and into the very eye 
of the sun. Everlasting life is the outlay of God 
in the person of His own Son who stays the hand 
of vengeance until the hand of mercy has min- 
istered and ministered even to seventy times 
seven, and until forgiveness has run out into in- 
finite enumeration. The everlasting outlay of 
God means the everlasting life of man. 

Now there is something in every one to remind 
God of this, if He ever could forget, which He 
cannot, — that is, His image which we bear, and 
by which we are like Him. The night was never 
so dark but there is somewhere a glimmer of light, 
which tells of the star from which it came. The 
coin can not go so far from its own country into 
any land on earth as to lose the image of its au- 
thor and owner. But it must be brought back 
again to its own land before it can pass currency 
and be of use. 

No man has gone so far from God that God 



God So Loved the World 247 

can not find in him this image and superscription 
of the royalty of heaven, and God's chief busi- 
ness among men is to bring man back to the place 
where he may be of value to himself and his 
God. When God sees this image, He sees it not 
as it would appear to the eye of man, but as it 
appears to His own perfect eye. He sees the 
work in its finished form, with all possibilities 
realized and all hopes crowned with a golden 
crown, and we are complete in Him. 

When God created Adam, that was not the 
end, else He would have said, let us make Adam 
in our image and likeness, nor was Moses or 
David or Paul the end, else He would have said 
let us make these. But He did say, " Let us 
make man." There was a wide horizon for a 
great possibility. What might not man then be- 
come? So God loves to look at what we may 
become. He sees past the blotches and blurs 
and wrinkles and wounds and scars, to the best 
that is in us and before us. The more divine we 
become the less do we see each other's defects. 

There was a rejected block of marble in the 
chip yard of one of the great artists of Florence. 
It had been rejected by all the great men of that 
great city. But there came by a mere boy, and 
looking upon it he saw something wonderful. 

The marble was chipped and cracked and 
seamed and discoloured, but he saw it not, for 
only that wonderful image rose before him. He 
began work upon it, and for months kept steadily 



248 The Message of To-Morrow 



at his work, seeing only that beautiful thing 
which no one else could see. All the while the 
older artists laughed at him for wasting his time. 
But when they removed the scaffolding and took 
away the chips and brushed off the dust and dis- 
played the most wonderful statue of David the 
young shepherd boy, they all stood in amazement 
and said : " Michael Angelo," — for it was he, — 
" thou hast made an eternal thing." And you 
will almost think so too if you will go to Florence 
and see it as it now stands, supreme over all 
sculpturing in that great city. 

So God sees the most wonderful thing in the 
life rejected by man, and sets about to bring it 
out, on and on He works, though man may jeer 
and mock, until that new creation stands crowned 
with an everlasting crown, and is a king forever. 

It is a better life than that of Eden, for that 
was in man's hand and could be thrown away, 
and was thrown away. But this life which we 
live in Him is in God's hands, and no one shall 
ever pluck it out. 

This is the only kind of life which is eternal, 
and can perpetuate itself. Machinery will rattle 
and bang and break down some time, the bird 
will one day cease to fly, though it may have 
passed from continent to continent. Man will 
cease from being on this earth, though he may 
have passed one hundred mile-stones. But here 
is a life that goes on and on, in spite of days and 
years and time and eternity. The only true per- 



God So Loved the World 249 

petual motion is the life of God in the soul ever 
moving and carrying it on toward a fuller realiza- 
tion. Now the earth is just the soil in which this 
life is to grow, but its product is not to be of the 
earth, as the wheat is not like the soil from which 
it springs. From the worst decay of swamps and 
rivers rise the snow-white water lilies, spreading 
themselves in the sunlight like fairy ships of 
beauty. So we grow amid the death and decay of 
this world, ourselves rising higher and higher 
into the pure life of God, because we have ever- 
lasting life in Him. 

An old fable says a monk in other days looked 
so long and intently upon the image of the cruci- 
fied Saviour that the print of the nails came into 
his hands. This may be a fable as to the monk's 
hands, but it is a fact as to the soul that looks 
upon Him, for " when we see Him, we shall be 
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 

Here then lies the secret of final rewards — 
that is, in everlasting life, for we shall carry 
nothing to heaven save that which has taken hold 
of the soul. 

It is not how much money have you, but how 
much have you translated into life; not how 
much power do you hold, but how much have 
you arranged to keep ; not how much sway 
have you over the hearts and lives of man, but 
how much sway over yourself, and how much 
sway has God over you. 

And the way is perfectly open to this. God 



250 The Message of To-Morrow 

does not say, " Ask and ye shall receive," and 
then when the hand is extended for the needed 
favour, smite the hand instead of giving the gift. 
God says, "Knock and it shall be opened unto you," 
and no man ever knocked and then had the door 
of Providence slammed in his face. God never 
said to anyone, " Come unto Me all ye that are 
weary," — and then when they came sent them out 
again into a busy world to carry the burdens for 
beggars and loafers. God has made ample pro- 
vision for everlasting life. You ought to clothe 
the body well, but you ought to clothe the soul 
better, for it has a longer life to live. You ought 
to feed the body well, but you ought to feed the 
soul better, for it has a longer race to run. You 
ought to teach the hand well, but you ought to 
teach the soul better, for it has a greater work to 
do. You ought to set before the eye a bright 
star of hope, but you ought to set before the soul 
an eternal light, for the soul shall live forever. 

Come then you who are misunderstood and 
misrepresented and who seem to have failed on 
earth, and you will find your success in heaven. 
Come those who have approached near to the 
edge of the grave, with empty hands, but full 
hearts. Come those from whom is fading the 
light of this world, and behold the light from 
heaven which never pales as does the star, and 
which never sets as does the sun. Come those 
who have forgotten most of the things of earth 
which come fluttering by like birds of October in 



God So Loved the World 251 

their flight to the sunny southland, come all of 
you, and receive the reward that will never 
perish and never pass away. " For God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." This is the grand 
consummation toward which we are surely going. 

We are like the ship in the gulf stream, headed 
for a northern port. On the prow are our hopes 
and aspirations, our longings of the better na- 
ture, like free men looking anxiously for the 
harbour, and watching the star, that progress may 
be made aright. While down in the hold of the 
ship like prisoners, are anger, and hatred, and 
jealousy, — the lower powers of the nature. Yet 
all are going, for the gulf stream bears us up, and 
the wind hurries us along. But e'er long the 
prisoners shall be set free, and shall join those 
on the outlook for the harbour. So the whole 
man — complete and strong, with face set to an 
eternal future, shall come safely into the homing 
port, and we shall know God — for " this is life 
eternal that ye may know Thee and Jesus Christ 
whom Thou hast sent." " For God so loved, and 
Christ so died, and man so believes and is saved." 

" Take heart O soul of sorrow and be strong, 
There is one greater than this whole world's wrong, 
' Tis no avail to bargain, sneer and nod, 
And shrug the shoulders in reply to God. 
Be still before this high benignant power 
That moves wool-shod thro' sepulchre and tower." 



XIX 



THE GREAT RANSOM 

The Son of man came ... to give His life a ran- 
som for many. — Matthew 20: 28. 

It has long since been conceded that " God so 
loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
perish but have everlasting life." But all have 
not realized that it was a free act on the part 
of Christ. This is the lesson of the text, " The 
Son of man came to give Himself a ransom for 
many." It is not the vision of a God in the pleni- 
tude of His power, holding vast and absolute sway 
with every possible show of authority; but it is 
the vision of the Great God disrobing Himself, 
laying aside His sceptre, and coming down from 
His throne to the level of fallen humanity. 

It was a question of human rights, of prefer- 
ment and honour, that had just been discussed be- 
fore Christ voiced these words. The mother of 
the Zebedee boys went to Christ to ask that her 
two sons might sit the one on His right hand 
and the other on His left, in His kingdom. Poor 
woman; she did not know that such places are 
attained not by mere gift, but by the payment in 
suffering and endurance, of one's very life. Christ 
252 



The Great Ransom 253 



the Son of God reached the highest point of worth 
and honour ever known on earth; He has the 
highest place in heaven, at the right hand of the 
Father, but these He attained through the deep- 
est, darkest suffering. 

I. The Son of man gave His life. 

This is the last thing that man is willing to 
give for his fellow man, — his life. It is the first 
thing that God bestows. It was not that Christ 
did not enjoy His Father's presence in heaven, 
that He came on earth ; it was not that He was 
insensible to suffering and pain that He came; 
it was not that man deserved or dared to ask 
anything, but because first of all He could not 
bear to see suffering. 

It was His habit to go where He might find 
the sick, and the lame, and the blind, and the pal- 
sied, that He might relieve them of their diseases. 
It was because of His great desire to save life. 
Somehow His tender heart was touched with 
the cry of the sufferers from earth, and He at 
once gave His life for them. 

" It was a hot day in July 1864, and Gen. Grant 
was after us," said an old Confederate. " Our 
men had hurriedly dug rifle-pits to protect them- 
selves from the Federal sharpshooters, and dead 
and dying Feds were lying up to the very edge 
of those pits. 

" In one of the pits was an ungainly, raw, red- 
headed boy. He was a retiring lad, green as grass, 



254 The Message of To-Morrow 

but a reliable fighter. We never paid much at- 
tention to him, one way or another. 

" The wounded had been lying for hours un- 
attended before the pits, and the sun was getting 
hotter and hotter. They were suffering horribly 
from pain and thirst. Not fifteen feet away, out- 
side the rifle-pit, lay a mortally wounded officer 
who was our enemy. 

" As the heat grew more intolerable, this of- 
ficer's cries for water increased. He was evi- 
dently dying hard, and his appeals were of the 
most piteous nature. The red-headed boy found 
it hard to bear them. He had just joined the regi- 
ment and was not yet callous to suffering. At 
last, with tears flooding his grimy face, he cried 
out: 

" ' I can't stand it no longer, boys ! I'm goin' 
to take that poor feller my canteen.' 

" For answer to this foolhardy speech, one of 
us stuck a cap on a ramrod and hoisted it above 
the pit. Instantly it was pierced by a dozen bul- 
lets. To venture outside a step was the maddest 
suicide. And all the while we could hear the 
officer's moans : 

" ' Water ! water ! Just one drop, for God's 
sake, somebody ! Only one drop ! ' 

" The tender-hearted boy could stand the ap- 
peal no longer. Once, twice, three times, in spite 
of our utmost remonstrance, he tried unsuccess- 
fully to clear the pit. At last he gave a desperate 
leap over the embankment, and once on the other 



The Great Ransom 255 



side, threw himself flat upon the ground and 
crawled toward his dying foe. He could not get 
close to him because of the terrible fire, but he 
broke a sumac bush, tied to the stick his precious 
canteen, and landed it in the sufferer's trembling 
hands. 

" You never heard such gratitude in your life. 
Perhaps there was never any like it before. The 
officer was for tying his gold watch on the stick 
and sending it back as a slight return for the 
disinterested act. But this the boy would not 
allow. He only smiled happily, and returned, as 
he had gone, crawling amid a hailstorm of bullets. 
When he reached the edge of the pit, he called 
out to his comrades to clear the way for him, 
and with a mighty leap he was among us once 
more. He was not even scratched. 

" He took our congratulations calmly. We said 
it was the bravest deed we had seen during the 
war. He did not answer. His eyes had a soft, 
musing look. 

" ' How could you do it? ' I asked in a whisper 
later, when the crack of the rifles ceased for a 
moment. 

" ' It was something I thought of/ he said, 
simply. ' Something my mother used to say to 
me. " I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink," she 
said. She read it to me out of the Bible, and she 
taught it to me until I never could forget it. 
When I heard that man crying for water I re- 
membered it. The words stood still in my head. 



256 The Message of To-Morrow 

I couldn't get rid of 'em. So I thought they 
meant me — and I went. That's all/ 

" This was the reason why the boy was ready 
to sacrifice his life for an enemy. And it was 
reason enough," added the soldier, with a quaver- 
ing voice. 

So it was Christ who could not bear to hear 
the cry of His enemies. He knew He was the 
only one who could help, so He gladly came. 

" He saw me ruined in the fall, 
He flew to my relief." 

But He gave His life because those to be saved 
are related to Him, though enemies. We are all 
children in the great family of God. There is 
no earthly parent who will carelessly see his child 
leave home and go out into suffering. His mind 
will attend him, and if there be an older brother 
he will most likely be sent to find him and bring 
the wanderer home. And Christ is this One who 
comes to recover us from the lost condition. A 
faint picture of this is given in an incident which 
occurred five days after the terrible flood at Johns- 
town, Pa., in 1889, when so many lives were lost. 

A daily paper of that time says : 

" The first body taken from the ruins this 
morning was that of a boy named Davis, who was 
found in the debris near the bridge. He wa9 
badly bruised and burned. 

" The remains were taken to the undertaking 
rooms at the P. R. R. station, where they were 



The Great Ransom 257 



identified as those of Willie Davis. The boy's 
mother had been making a tour of the different 
morgues for the past few days, and was just 
going through the undertaking rooms, when she 
saw the remains of her boy being brought in. 
She ran up and demanded the remains, and 
seemed to have lost her mind. She caused quite 
a scene by her actions, but calmed down after a 
while and stated that she had lost her husband 
and six children in the flood and that this was the 
first one of the family that had been recovered. 
She said she had not slept a wink since Saturday, 
and had visited the different morgues at least 
100 times." 

Sad story, this. She was looking for her own, 
and how she endured those wakeful days and 
nights in the midst of that awful desolation to 
find them. So it is that Christ has come forth 
into a desolate storm-swept earth, that He may 
find and redeem His own. He is our Elder 
Brother; and would not a brother help one who 
belongs to the same family? 

Then He gave His life to establish His great 
cause. 

Some time ago, it is said, a young clerk in a 
drug store in Baltimore, began the study of medi- 
cine and surgery. His active mind developed 
religious as well as scientific enterprise, and both 
in church circles and among the poor he became 
known as a working Christian and " a born doc- 
tor." 



258 The Message of To-Morrow 

After about five years of practice in the United 
States Marine Hospital, his fearless missionary 
zeal outgrew his place, and he begged the Pres- 
byterian Board of Missions to send him to the 
most difficult station in their field. They sent 
him to Bangkok, Siam. 

When he set out he had spent every dollar of 
his own money for medicines, surgical instru- 
ments and other supplies, and several wholesale 
druggists had generously helped him to stock his 
" chest." With this outfit and the small pay 
of a foreign missionary to depend upon for his 
living, he reached Bangkok, and opened a dis- 
pensary. 

His skill soon gave him reputation, and in less 
than a year he had successfully treated over three 
thousand cases. The fame of his work, reached 
the king, who sent to offer him the position of 
government doctor — or surgeon-general. After 
long hesitation, with the approval of the Presby- 
terian Board, he finally accepted the office. The 
salary was seven thousand dollars a year, but 
he retained only his usual missionary stipend, 
turning all the rest over to the Board. 

The new position gave him power that no man 
could use better than he. He began at once to 
organize medical schools and establish hospitals ; 
and his plans were so well carried out that within 
five years the Siamese ceased to send their young 
men to foreign countries to be educated as doc- 
tors. His wonderful success has won him the 



The Great Ransom 259 



warmest favour of the king, and he is now a court 
physician. The Baltimore doctor is still a Chris- 
tian missionary, with no ambition but duty. 

How like that One who came from heaven not 
to receive money but to establish a great cause. 

I read a few days ago that a physician in St. 
Louis, had arranged to be enclosed with a leper 
in a pest house, to nurse the man who had this 
dreadful disease. He bade farewell to his wife 
and children and friends, took his books and 
papers with him into the fatal house. 

You ask why was he so foolish? He is doing 
it, we are told, for the cause of science. He is 
to make the experiments and record the results 
for future use in treating such cases. He is to 
give his life for the cause of medicine and in 
the hope of relieving other sufferers. What a 
noble ambition ! How few there are, who would 
do such a thing. Yet Christ did far more than 
that; for He was the God coming to help man, 
instead of a man helping his fellow man. Christ 
was like the Emperor Menelik, of Abyssinia, 
who has for a long time given great attention to 
Western civilization, and has recently turned his 
interest to fitting himself for the work of a 
physician. He spends a large part of his time 
in a hospital, watching with keen interest the 
surgical operations. The emperor often expresses 
astonishment at the skill of the surgeons, and 
is most pleased when he can be of some service 
to them, holding a limb or a roll of bandages. He 



i6o The Message of To-Morrow 

is at present planning to build an immense hos- 
pital at Adis Aheda, the capital of his nation, and 
when it is finished he intends to take the entire 
control of the surgical department. It is certainly 
a royal spirit which prompts him to be a blessing 
to his subjects. In that respect he is following 
the example of the King of kings, who went 
about doing good. 

A king in a hospital! What a sight! And 
that he should take entire control of the surgical 
department. Who would not love to have the 
skill of a king when injured? It would almost 
pay to be injured to have those tender hands to 
help. It is the cause of a king that is being 
established. So it is that Christ the King of 
kings comes into this sinful world, this hospital 
of sickness and suffering and takes charge of all, 
for He says in this very verse with the text, that 
He comes " not to be ministered unto but to min- 
ister." 

He will not permit any one to do His work. 
We will be cared for by His own tender, gentle 
hands for He came to give His life a ransom 
for us. 

II. A ransom. The Son of man came to give 
His life a ransom. 
"Held for $25,000 ransom!" That was the 
news flashed over the country from Omaha, some 
time ago, about a rich man's son. But this was 
not any great news. The same story might be 



The Great Ransom a6i 



read on the face and in the life of every son of 
Adam down, except One who became the ran- 
som for many. Everyone was sold unto sin, and 
did not have the amount asked by the captors. 
The challenge to Mr. Cudehay was at once ac- 
cepted by him and paid. He considered it a hard 
bargain, but it was the best he could do; and 
fortunately for the boy he was rich enough to pay 
it. 

Sin made a bold challenge to the Almighty. 
The only price possible was the life of His only 
Son. He accepted the situation and fortunately 
for us, He was rich enough in love and in grace, 
and so He paid it. No wonder the angels sang 
the " Glory to God in the highest," over the fields 
of Bethlehem when Christ came a ransom for 
many. Bought back again by the Son of God, 
and that by His life! No wonder rolling time 
sustained a jar that changed her calendar! 

Listen all ye who are bound by habits of sin, 
evil thoughts and life of failure, Christ has come 
and has given His life a ransom. He has paid 
the full price and no sin great or small can ever 
dispute this. Satan himself must yield. The 
villains who stole the rich man's son in Qmaha, 
accepted the amount and were honest enough to 
deliver up their prey. So, sin is fair enough to 
yield — it must yield when the full price in the 
life and death of Christ is paid. Only let us see 
that we are not stolen again by the same sin. 

This story comes from a neighbouring city, 



262 The Message of To-Morrow 



" Sold twice as a slave as early as 1824 and 
having lived in three centuries, Mrs. Susan 
Quinn, colored, 101 years of age, is lying ill at 
her home. 

" Mrs. Quinn was born in Washington in 1800 
and resided in that city until twenty years of 
age. She was then seized and bound over as a 
slave. Her first master was named Tinser Engle. 
Later she was sold to another slave dealer, a 
Frenchman, named Baron Higgins. After keep- 
ing her for a few years Higgins set her free, 
when she was about thirty years of age. 

She did not enjoy her freedom long before she 
was again seized, but she sent to Washington and 
secured her freedom certificate, upon presentation 
of which her captor released her." 

Beautiful story, that when the old habit, the 
old sin, the old Devil, lays hands on us, having 
been ransomed by the Son of God who gave His 
life for us, we produce our " freedom certificate," 
and the captor will release us. 

In our case the " freedom certificate " is a life, 
— the life of the Son of God. So well is this 
known that no one will dispute it for a moment. 
Let it be known that we were purchased; not 
with gold or silver or any such thing, but by the 
precious blood of Jesus, and the power of sin 
will flee. 

All men may thus understand the importance 
of this divine ransom. It is a beautiful quality 
when seen anywhere. Who does not admire the 



The Great Ransom 263 



lion that dies defending his young? The man 
who is not touched with the loyalty of the dog 
that dies to save his master, has no tender feel- 
ing. The little sparrow fights a great battle when 
it darts at the hawk again and again as it de- 
fends its young, so that all passing by say, " Truly 
it is a little hero." 

But when the Son of God comes and stands 
between us and the calamity of the ages, that is, 
the guilt and power of sin ; and receives its effect 
in Himself and pays the full price, it seems that 
men would run to Him to accept His infinite kind- 
ness, and that the angels must weep for the man 
who passes it by. The whole world would have 
scorned the youth in the west, who was stolen, 
if when his father had paid the full price, he had 
said, " O I'll not accept the offer. I will stay 
here with these men who have stolen me." You 
say he would be a fool ! Yes, and you would 
be right, and yet he would be a Solomon in wis- 
dom compared with those who do not accept the 
offer of Christ's ransom. They will one day rind 
themselves the colossal fools of the ages. 

III. For many. 

" The Son of man came to give His life a 
ransom for many." Why not for all? Because 
all would not accept. The ransom is sufficient 
for all, if all were willing to receive it. 

We are told that when the negroes of the South 
were freed, some went out and said to their fel- 



I 



264 The Message of To -Morrow 

lows working in the field, " We are free." But 
the others gazed in wonder and said nothing. 
They said again, " We are free men ; come let 
us give three cheers." But the stupid fellows did 
not cheer, but turned to their work and refused 
to be liberated. The Emancipation Proclamation 
was meant for them as much as for those who ac- 
cepted its great offer. It was sufficient for all. 
So the great ransom of God in Christ, is sufficient 
for every man, woman and child in all the world. 
In this there is neither Greek, nor Jew, nor Ro- 
man, nor Turk nor American. All are alike be- 
fore God so far as the grant of the ransom is 
concerned. He will give it to as many as believe 
on Him and do His gracious will. 

Who can guess the happiness of the ransomed ? 
Who can tell the joy that filled the home of the 
Western millionaire when his son returned after 
he had been ransomed for $25,000? Who can 
tell of the gladness with which one returning to 
Christ shall be received. No wonder they killed 
the fatted calf when the prodigal returned! No 
wonder it is said that there is joy in heaven over 
one sinner that comes home to His Father's 
house. Who would not be faithful after such a 
ransom ? 

General Adams told me that when he com- 
manded at Atlanta, in the civil war, that he had 
just mustered out a number of men who had 
served their time, with many who were sick and 
wounded and disabled. How happy were these 



The Great Ransom 26 J 



men, who now had their freedom from further 
dangers of war ! Many of them had written home 
saying that they would soon be there. But just 
as they were about to go, the enemy came upon 
them. Then they all ran for their guns and the 
sick and well, the crippled and the nimble, alike 
rushed upon the enemy in a great bayonet charge. 

What pleasure it gave them to fight for the 
nation that was paying the ransom for the slaves 
and granting freedom. With what joy do we 
serve the Son of God who came to give His life 
a ransom for all who will believe. This is the 
picture of joy which Isaiah spreads before us, 
beautiful and bright, as he describes in prospect 
the home coming of Israel from bondage and as 
he describes the final home coming of all who 
have been bought by the Son of God. 

" And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, 
and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy 
upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy and glad- 
ness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." 



XX 



WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED? 

"What must I do to be saved? Acts 16: 30. 

How quickly conditions change. In an instant, 
at the shock of an earthquake, the jailer becomes 
a prisoner, condemned to die, and the prisoners 
become free men. Conditions in life will not 
save us any more than they saved the Philippian 
jailer, but may be the very occasion of our bond- 
age. For, the worst form of imprisonment is not 
that which is endured behind barred windows, 
but rather that which sin imposes. A few years 
ago while in London we went to visit one of the 
largest prisons in that great city. We went safely 
from ward to ward. There was perfect order 
there. All the prisoners were clean and well fed. 
The next day we went to the awful White Chapel 
region in the same city. We had gone in about 
the distance of a block when my friend became 
frightened and turned back. I had not gone 
much farther when an officer of the law came 
up and tapping me on the shoulder said : " If you 
value your life you had better not go any further." 
And as I looked around, and saw the filth and 
degradation, the wrecks of human life, the beings 
266 



What Must I Do to be Saved 267 



in human form that carried in their faces, the 
mark of every sin and every crime, 1 said, " the 
prison up yonder that we visited yesterday, and 
that is maintained by the government, is a heaven 
compared with this bondage of sin." It is true 
that " whom Christ makes free he shall be free 
indeed," and it is just as true that whom sin binds 
he is bound indeed. Yet many of you seem to 
love the bondage of sin, for you refuse to come 
out of it, and will not ask the question : " What 
must I do to be saved." 

There is no one who does not at some time in 
life need assistance. There is no one who will 
not sooner or later need supreme help in the 
great moment when the earthquake of God's 
wrath shall break forth in fury. Sooner or later 
everyone must stand in the place of the jailer and 
cry for the help of the infinite God. The first 
thing then to be realized in this question, is our 
relation to Him. 

I. The condition. 

It was that of the sleeper. 

You will notice that this man slept on duty. 
For this he was to lose his life, according to 
the Roman law. A rather dear sleep, you say. 
Up to this time he was not disturbed with this 
great question of his relation to his God. He had 
performed his duty with the ease and composure 
of a man who had settled every difficulty. He 
did his work just as well, no doubt as any ordi- 



268 The Message of To-Morrow 



nary man ever did. Because a man performs his 
every-day duty to his employer in the best way 
does not prove that he is a Christian. Christi- 
anity is not the commodity of most business men. 
They do not die defending the principles of God's 
Word in the workshop or office. The world is 
pretty largely asleep on this great question. 

There are people who are totally unconscious 
of the great power of music and the ability of 
the soul to master and enjoy harmony. They 
seem to be happy. They go about their work 
with just as much ease as did Beethoven or Han- 
del. But some day there comes along a great 
musician who stirs the sleeping soul till it loves 
and longs for the ecstasy of the great organ and 
then it cries out, " What must I do to be a mu- 
sician?'' and the answer comes, "Believe in the 
master musician with all thy heart and life." So 
we are asleep to the great power and thrill of 
the Christ life, until He who can stir to won- 
drous deeds this careless life, comes to wake us 
and then we cry out with the Philippian jailer, 
" What must I do to have the power of God in 
my soul ? " 

There are people who walk about at night in 
their sleep ; yet their eyes are wide open and they 
perform intelligent deeds. Some of them go to 
their daily work, perform some service and then 
if not wakened, return to their rest. There are 
many — ah, too many, — who walk about the world 
asleep to all that God says and does. They return 



What Must I Do to be Saved 269 



again to their homes and think they are fulfilling 
the mission of their lives. But alas ! How sadly 
they miss the great end of being. 

Like the somnambulist, like the Philippian 
jailer, it requires an earthquake of God's provi- 
dence to wake them. 

When walking along a railroad track in North- 
ern Pennsylvania, we found an old man lying 
asleep with his head and shoulders across one 
rail of the track. We had heard the fast express 
coming, and that had hurried us on. So when 
we came up to the old man, we took hold of him 
and pulled him off the track, just in time to save 
him, for the next instant the train whizzed by at 
a rate of forty miles an hour. That would have 
been a fatal sleep had there not been helping 
hands to rescue him just in time. Yet that was 
a safe place to be, compared with the positions 
that some of you occupy. Worse than sleeping in 
church, and far worse than sleeping on a rail- 
road track, is the sleep of sin in which some of 
you are indulging. The songs of praise and the 
prayers of God's people do not wake you. You 
sleep on, like the jailer in our text, until some 
great earthquake shakes you into decision. May 
God send the mighty earthquake, if nothing else 
will do, to wake you from sleep and make you 
cry out, " What must I do to be saved ? " 

Because a man is not disturbed is no proof 
that he is safe. A man may be asleep in a boat 
above the falls of Niagara, drifting toward cer- 



270 The Message of To-Morrow 



tain death, but the fact that he is asleep will not 
save him. The ease of mind did not save this 
jailer. That Jonah was asleep in the boat did not 
save him in the great storm ; for the sailors woke 
him violently and asked, 

"What meanest thou O sleeper? Arise, call 
upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon 
us, that we perish not." 

II. The great need. 

He did not wait to be courtmartialed, or to 
have a judge to pronounce sentence. He knew 
that the moment he had committed the offense 
he was a condemned man. Who then could help 
him? The only help must be in the power that 
had shown to him his danger. 

But when he found that the prisoners had not 
escaped, and the matter was likely to be kept 
quiet he might have said what some of you have 
been saying day after day and year after year: 
" Not now." " Not to-night." " I'll wait a little 
longer before settling this question." But he did 
not. He cried out, " What must I do to be 
saved ? " He saw only one thing, and that was 
the " must " — the need of being saved. It is when 
we come to this need of salvation, and find it the 
only way, and cry out " what must 1 do to be 
saved," that we find salvation at once. 

When I was a pastor in Philadelphia, I used 
to visit the poor unfortunates in Moyamensing 
prison, at the request of the warden, whose family 



What Must I Do to be Saved 271 



belonged to my church. One day I found a poor 
miserable, half crazed, middle-aged man, in one 
of the cells, who was in great trouble. He felt 
the awfulness of his condition. He wanted to 
be released ; so he went round and round the little 
cell crying out : " I must be out of here ; O, there 
must be something done; I must not be a pris- 
oner; O, I must be free, I must be out of here." 
The Philippian jailer, who had not heard the one- 
hundredth part of the preaching that you have 
heard, and the poor prisoner in Moyamensing 
prison, who had perhaps never heard a sermon, 
cried out for help. But many of you who have 
heard the most excellent preaching, for years, go 
away without feeling the need of a Saviour. 

A poor drunkard strayed into our meeting one 
day in a Western city, and knelt before the pul- 
pit, praying and crying out for help. Some said 
he was drunk and that the best thing was to put 
him out. But we prayed with him, until peace 
came into his heart and he believed he was saved. 
As he walked out of that place of meeting he said 
to us, " Look here, I want to tell you something. 
In about two minutes, while we were kneeling 
there, all the sins I had ever committed came up 
before me. I saw them all. O, it was terrible." 
Then we understood why he wept and wailed and 
moaned, while he was on his knees. He had to 
cry out, the sight was so terrible. 

When one is drowning, he knows his danger 
and his doom, if he can not swim. But he can 



272 The Message of To-Morrow 



not help himself. So with one in sin. There must 
be help or he will perish. But when one comes 
to help the drowning, he must have his way, 
even to rendering the one to be rescued uncon- 
scious. It may be the saviour of the drowning 
will wait till he is about to go down the last 
time, or it may be that he will deal the one to be 
rescued a hard blow to render him entirely help- 
less. Then he can save him. He must have his 
way. So when God comes to save us from sin 
and suffering and from woe, He must have His 
way. To this the jailer consented, when he cried 
out, 

" What must I do to be saved? " He did not 
say to Paul and Silas, " Over there in cell 4 is 
an old thief. No one can reform him. He even 
stole from his mother. What must he do to be 
saved ? " He did not say, " There in cell 23 is a 
murderer. He has killed many a man. What 
must he do to be saved ? " But he cried out for 
himself, "What must I do to be saved?" The 
answer came quickly to him, 

" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved." 

III. His great help was salvation through be- 
lief. 

Is salvation worth decision and belief in Christ ? 
If we would value it as the mother does we 
would think so. A mother said to me only a few 
days ago, " One of my boys is now a Christian. 



What Must I Do to be Saved 273 

I have nothing in the world but what my two 
boys give to me, but if only the other would be- 
come a Christian I would be the richest woman in 
the universe. Whenever he goes out, in the 
morning, at noon, at night or at midnight, I 
am on my knees praying and praying for him 
lest he may be brought home a corpse and his 
soul be lost. I suffered much for him when he 
was small, but that is not to be compared with 
what I suffer now." O, how some of you moth- 
ers value salvation, and yet you young men treat 
it as a light thing and will not ask, " What must 
I do to be saved ? " O, how some of you mothers 
are praying now; yet you young people will not 
believe, so as to be saved. A lady said last night 
in the meeting that she wanted to settle this ques- 
tion now and know before she came to die that 
she is a child of God. That is believing and be- 
ing saved. 

A young lady, eighteen years of age, was cross- 
ing the great railroad suspension bridge at Niag- 
ara Falls. As the train stopped on the American 
side, before going over, she stepped out, and 
leaning on the rail of the bridge looked down at 
the foaming waters. While standing there the 
train started, but she did not hear it because the 
sound of the waters filled her ears. Turning she 
saw the light on the rear end of the train vanish- 
ing. It was night and she had only the open ties 
of the bridge to walk on, and these she could only 
see dimly in the darkness, but she rushed after 



274 The Message of To-Morrow 

the train with all her power. Finding that the 
train was fast leaving her, she stopped about one- 
fourth the way across and asked, what shall I 
do to save myself? Just then she heard another 
train coming after her — a train pursuing her, 
the mad waters of the Niagara underneath. The 
only way for her was across the bridge. As 
though with wings, she flew on in the darkness, 
and reached the other side in safety not three 
minutes too soon. Many of you have lingered 
by the side of this world's pleasures until their 
sounds have rilled your ears, and you, like the 
Philippian jailer, are asleep, or like the young 
lady, do not see that your chance has gone. Let 
us, like that girl, fly for a safe refuge; like the 
Philippian jailer, cry out, " What must I do to 
be saved ? " 

But the jailer was accustomed to the doctrine 
of works, so he asked, " What must I do to be 
saved." He never once asked what he must be- 
lieve. But the answer came, " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ." So we must be in right re- 
lation to Christ, who walks among us to bring 
pardon if we are worthy. 

A German prince, travelling through France, 
visited the Arsenal at Toulon, where the galleys 
were kept. The commandant, as a compliment 
to his rank, offered to set at liberty any slave 
whom he selected. The prince went the round 
of the prison, therefore, and conversed with the 
prisoners. He inquired into the reason of their 
confinement, and met only with universal com- 



What Must I Do to be Saved 275 



plaints of injustice, oppression, and false accusa- 
tion. 

At last he came to one man, who admitted his 
imprisonment to be just. " My Lord," said he, 
" I have no reason to complain. I have been 
a wicked, desperate wretch. I have often de- 
served to be broken upon the wheel, and it is a 
mercy that I am here." The prince fixed his eyes 
upon the man, and, without hesitation, selected 
him, saying, " This is the man whom I wish re- 
leased." 

It was not that the man was handsomer, or 
older, or younger, or richer, or poorer than the 
rest; but that his heart was right, in relation to 
his benefactor. When we believe in Christ we 
are in right relation to him as was the Philippian 
jailer, and as in the case of the French prisoner. 

Archbishop Cranmer was a friend of truth in 
evil times, and a plot was formed to take his life. 
God so ordered it that the papers which would 
have completed the plan were intercepted and 
traced to their authors, one of whom lived in 
the archbishop's family, and the other he had 
greatly served. He took these men in his palace 
and told them that some persons had disclosed 
their secrets and accused them of heresy. They 
loudly censured such villainy, and declared the 
traitors worthy of death; one of them adding 
that if an executioner was wanted he would per- 
form the office. Struck with their perfidy, after 
lifting up his voice to Heaven and thanking God 
for his preservation, he produced their letters. 



ij6 The Message of To- Morrow 



They fell on their knees, confessed and implored 
forgiveness. Cranmer expostulated with them 
forgave them and never alluded to their treach- 
ery. 

His forgiveness of injuries was so well known 
that it became a byword, " Do my lord of Can- 
terbury an ill turn, and you make him your friend 
forever." 

These men were worthy of forgiveness only 
when they were in right relation to their Master, 
and were made to see their great sin, and the 
great heart of love in the breast of the Arch- 
bishop. 

Like this there came to the Philippian jailer 
the great joy of salvation. 

We do not longer hear of his fear of the Ro- 
man law, that he should die, if the prisoners 
should escape. A greater and better power was 
around him now. In one of the early centuries 
of this era, they brought a Christian before a 
king, who wanted him to recant and give up 
Christ and Christianity, but the man spurned the 
proposition. But the king said, 

" If you don't do it, I will banish you." 

The man smiled and answered, " You can't 
banish me from Christ, for He says He will never 
leave me nor forsake me." 

The king got angry, and said, " Well I will 
confiscate your property and take it all from you." 

And the man replied, " My treasures are laid 
up on high ; you can not get them." 



What Must I Do to be Saved 277 



The king became still more angry, and said, 
" I will kill you." 

" Why," the man answered, " I have been dead 
forty years; I have been dead with Christ, dead 
to the world, and my life is hid with Christ in 
God, and you can not touch it." 

" What are you going to do with such a fa- 
natic ? " asked the king. 

It was this joy and this testimony that com- 
forted the jailer. It is belief always that gives 
assurance and calmness of mind. We soon learn 
to trust in the stability of nature. We learn early 
in life that certain principles govern certain 
sciences and certain branches of learning and then 
comes the action. Most of us are like the jailer. 
We want to begin the action first. It would have 
been impossible for this prison keeper to have 
washed and dressed the wounds of these pris- 
oners before he was converted. It was impossible 
for him not to do it after his heart was changed 
in love for Christ. The beautiful story of a 
helpful Christianity was manifested in the act 
of the jailer. When a man believes, there will 
be plenty of action for no one will need to ask, 
" What must I do?" 

The jailer cared for Paul and Silas, for the 
sake of Christ who had granted him pardon. This 
is the inspiration of the whole Christian world. 

For some months a family, the poorest of the 
poor, lived on a miserable street in our city in 
an almost starving condition. The oldest boy, a 



278 The Message of To-Morrow 

lad of fourteen, sold papers ; but the income from 
this uncertain trade barely paid the rent of the 
cramped and cheerless quarters in which the six 
children and their mother lived. 

In the neighbourhood was a Jewish baker, who 
made a living by the hardest and most unremit- 
ting toil. He was poor, but his religion taught 
him to love his fellow creatures. He heard of 
the distress near him; here were people poorer 
than himself, and he had one of the children to 
come over once a day and take a loaf of bread. 
This charity, meaning so much to the baker, be- 
came for months almost the only means of sup- 
porting life that this poverty-stricken Christian 
family had. 

But one day John, the little father of his five 
brothers and sisters, " struck a job," as the phrase 
goes among such boys. Pretty soon the family 
moved into another tenement, where once a day 
the sun glanced in at one window. John was 
doing very well, and his family, although still 
poor enough, were happier than they had been 
for years; but he could not forget the baker 
and the kindness he had shown them when they 
were starving. 

All one week John was very thoughtful. At 
last, one evening, he said to his mother, 

" Mother, I want to put a thought before you. 
I've had it in mind some time, an' I can't help 
thinking it's a duty. 

" You know how the baker helped us out. 



What Must I Do to be Saved 279 

Now there's that family across the street, where 
the old man has just died. There's six children 
in that family, just like us, an' not a mouthful for 
"em to eat. Can't we take one of 'em in ? I could 
git up a little earlier an' go to bed a little later, 
an' work a little harder. But if you don't want to 
do it, I won't say any more." 

The boy stopped and looked at his mother. 
Their struggle was hard enough as it was. They 
could scarcely live, and if John lost his place they 
would be worse off than ever. What risk to un- 
dertake to feed another mouth! 

" What do you want to do this for ? " asked the 
mother, softly. 

John looked away. " Well," he said, " just on 
account of what the baker did for us." 

" All right, John," said his mother ; " for the 
sake of the baker we will take the child in." 

An act of kindness sows its own seed; and 
the harvests repeat themselves somewhere and 
some time, by an unchangeable law. The joy of 
imitation, as well as the duty of gratitude, will 
pass along the first giver's good deed after he has 
forgotten it. 

It was for the Master's sake that the jailer 
cared for Paul and Silas. Beautiful story of man 
redeemed, who no longer asks, " What must I 
do to be saved," but rather, " What may I do for 
the Saviour when saved ? " 



XXI 



PRAYER AND PROVIDENCE, — DO THEY CONFLICT? 

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, 
he went into his house; and, his windows being open 
in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he knelt upon his 
knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks 
before his God, as he did aforetime. — Daniel 6: 10. 

A beautiful story tells us that a private soldier 
in the army of Lord Cornwallis, was often absent 
from his quarters and from the company of his 
fellow soldiers. This attracted the attention of 
his comrades, who suspected that he was guilty 
of treason; so they had him arrested, tried by 
court-martial, and condemned to death. While 
awaiting execution, the Marquis, whose duty it 
was to oversee all military affairs at a distance 
from the seat of government, examined the min- 
utes of the trial, became dissatisfied with the case 
and sent for the prisoner. Upon being ques- 
tioned, the soldier solemnly denied the charge; 
and swore allegiance to his sovereign. Then he 
gave as a reason for his absence, that he was then 
praying to his God. He said he had made this 
defence at his trial but was not believed. 

It seemed a misfortune for this man to pray; 
280 



Prayer and Providence 1281 

for by it he was arrested and convicted. So with 
Daniel in that wonderful story of his life, every- 
thing seemed against him. What was the use in 
praying if the act only brought him into deeper 
trouble? We have all had similar experiences. 
Then we ask ourselves " what is the use of 
prayer ? " For all things seem to go on in their 
own way in spite of us. 

These seemed to be instances of the conflict 
between prayer and Providence, if there is ever 
such a thing. They seemed to be " flying in the 
face of Providence," " tempting God," and " lay- 
ing up wrath against the day of wrath." Surely 
the object of prayer is to bring release from care 
and worry and trouble, is it not ? Yes, surely that, 
but much more. Prayer has as its greatest ob- 
ject, the bringing of the petitioner into harmony 
with the will and plan of God. This must there- 
fore include all the elements of prayer, whatever 
they may be. Much of the prayer that is offered 
is of the selfish kind, which supposes that God 
will change circumstances and events to suit our 
conveniences and momentary success. We do not 
pray, " if it be Thy will," as we should, but with 
the feeling that it " must be so," or our prayer 
is not answered. So it appeared very foolish for 
Daniel to keep up a custom which only brought 
him trouble and did not seem to help him in his 
daily life. Why could he not just as well omit 
his prayer for a time and save himself the 
trouble ? Because he saw the divine side of prayer. 



282 The Message of To-Morrow 

I. The divine side of prayer. 

Like the people who condemned the soldier 
and like those who were watching for the life 
of Daniel there are millions who only see one 
side of truth, — who live on half truth, and that 
the human half, — who eat the thin coat of jelly 
the world spreads and think they are eating the 
bread of life. Is not the world full of poor houses 
and pauper dens, and are not these places full of 
paupers because so many attempt to live on half 
truth? For truth is whole, — having two sides, 
— one side is God's, the other man's; one side is 
earth's, the other heaven's; one side time's, the 
other eternity's. It was this large view of life 
that led Daniel to pray that memorable prayer, 
and led the English soldier to cling so loyally to 
his God. 

Most men are looking for their own advantage 
and are not satisfied unless they see immediate 
results. They start out in the morning, having 
offered a prayer for their own success, and un- 
less all things move in their favour, they are ac- 
customed to say that prayer is of no use. Does 
any man think his watch is of no use because it 
does not always keep perfect time? Does he 
throw it away and refuse ever after to look at 
any watch or clock just because his timepiece 
which he had trusted does not serve him at every 
moment as he thinks it should? 

Just so foolish is the man who would abandon 
all prayer relations with his God just because 



Prayer and Providence 283 



they do not come out as he expects. The man 
with the watch does not forget that there is a 
providence back of the watch — that is the watch- 
maker, who can usually make a watch run right 
if he has it in his care. But the owner is so 
anxious to keep agoing that he would rather do 
with an imperfect timepiece than to give up alto- 
gether. There are myriads of people who would 
rather struggle on in the winding, bewildering 
maze of events, than to let the infinite God have 
His way. O, sad indeed, that we should ever 
forget God's side of this great existence. 

A man looks in a mirror to see his likeness 
held before him. He does not think of the un- 
seen providence, which is the other half of the 
whole truth. He does not think that the quick- 
silver on the back of the mirror, though unseen, 
renders visible the object which stands before it. 
That quicksilver is the unseen providence of that 
event. So back of all things useful to man is 
the unseen power of God, holding forth the truth, 
only one half of which we see. And the man 
who is wise enough to win the special favour and 
help of the Almighty by going out of the sight of 
man into the unseen providences of God, is the 
one who wins as did Daniel. There is then no 
conflict between true prayer and providence. 

But what is true prayer? It is the request 
which is " agreeable to God's will." All else is 
empty sound. 

If my child comes to me and says, " Papa 



284 The Message of To-Morrow 



please strike down the neighbour's little boy be- 
cause I am angry at him." Will I regard that as 
a proper petition? By no means, so if I pray to 
God to strike down my enemy or to destroy his 
property, God will not regard that as a prayer, 
for the only privilege we can ask of God in re- 
gard to our enemies is good, for we are to pray 
for them who " despitefully use us and persecute 
us." 

Some years ago a noted skeptic, proposed as a 
test of prayer that a certain number of patients 
in a hospital should be selected to be prayed for, 
and a certain other number should be selected 
and not prayed for, to see which would recover 
first. The Christian world scorned such a thing, 
not that prayer is of no use, for it is; but be- 
cause such a test does not conform to God's will. 
God has other things to do beside trying to please 
the whims of skeptics, who never try to please 
the infinite God. He has given so much evidence 
of His power and love, that to do anything fur- 
ther would be to belittle His cause. This skeptic 
might as well ask that God should make a square 
triangle to prove mathematics. God then will 
only regard that as prayer which is agreeable to 
His will and it is our business to find what that 
is, as did Daniel of old. Then we will have the 
power that rules the world, moving and changing 
events, as when Elijah brought the rain from the 
clouds at Carmel ; as when Joshua made the sun 
and the moon stand still till he had finished his 



Prayer and Providence 285 



battle; as when Peter prayed at Pentecost and 
the thousands were converted; as with the 
praying soldier, so with you, prayer binds half 
truth to half truth making it whole. Truth is 
not to be divided but united. Christ came into 
the world to " bind up the broken hearted " by 
binding up to each soul the broken truth of God. 
Christ came into the world to heal the diseased 
and the leprous, by giving them — new — whole 
— unbroken; the power of God and the truth of 
God which, so far as man was concerned, man 
had shattered. But this can not be effected with 
half a weapon. Whole truth settles the conflict 
forever. The experience of this soldier as well 
as that of Daniel, make this truth not visionary 
but visible. Does it mean anything to you that 
Christ connected earth and heaven, by the birds 
that fly between ? Listen. " Behold the fowls 
of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, 
nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father 
f eedeth them, are ye not much better than they ? " 
Do you see only God's creation without seeing 
God in it ? Then there is no help for you beyond 
the laws of nature. The very bird to which 
Christ referred, going higher and higher in its 
flight until lost to the sight of man, seems a re- 
minder of the flight of prayer as it goes higher 
and higher until the throne of God is touched 
and moved. Are your eyes so dim that you see 
only the flowers around you while in their midst 
stands one who says, " Consider the lilies of the 



286 The Message of To-Morrow 



field, how they grow . . . and yet I say unto 
you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
like one of these." Should we not see Him? Is 
not there a suggestion of this whole truth, of 
God and man? 

There are families in which one child receives 
but little love, less kindness, and still less atten- 
tion. Then there are other children in that family 
upon whom the father is always showering his 
love and favour. The former receives little be- 
cause he asks for little or nothing. He asks for 
very little because he has never gone round to 
that side of his father. The father is not unjust. 
He does all that this child will permit, and more 
than he deserves. The other is always on the love 
side of his father drawing him out telling him of 
his great love and praising him for the blessings 
already received, as Daniel thanked God just 
when he saw the black cloud of trouble gather- 
ing. So there are those who never praise God 
for His goodness, who never look keenly into his 
providences. These are they who do not pray. 
But those who dwell on the love side of the 
heavenly Father, what blessings are theirs. Like 
Coleridge, who in his darkest earthly moment 
when he meditated suicide looked up and saw 
the other half of God's truth in the brightness of 
the providence side of this dark cloud and said, 

" Behind a frowning providence 
He hides a smiling face." 



Prayer and Providence 287 

But let us see what further happened to the 
English soldier. The Marquis then put him to 
the test of truthfulness, by making him kneel down 
and pray aloud, which he did with such fluency 
and ardour that the Marquis believed his story, 
revoked his sentence, made him a personal at- 
tendant and afterward raised him to a high posi- 
tion in the army. This was 

II. The test. How well this man in the story 
stood it! How well Daniel stood it! 
Everyone shall be tried. And there is a 
chance for everyone to achieve a decided 
victory. 

" In this world ye shall suffer persecution, but 
be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." 
If you have anything good the world will try 
you, in order to get or destroy it, and the higher 
the claim the greater the trial. It matters not to 
us that those who try us are not so good as those 
who are tried. How often this is the case. Like 
the soldiers in this army of Cornwallis, like 
Daniel and his enemies, there are many in the 
churches and out, who arrest and try their com- 
rades on a false charge and condemn them to 
death. " Behold, the time will come when he 
who killeth you thinketh he doeth God service." 
But this must in no way affect the faithfulness 
of the Christian. The fire only burns the dross 
from the gold, the grinding only adds to the dia- 
mond the greater brilliancy. There is not in any 



288 The Message of To-Morrow 



of these things the least conflict between true 
prayer and providence, but the greatest harmony. 
Because a boy is subjected to severe tests in 
school, is it to be supposed that the rules of the 
school are all made to work against him, and that 
the teacher is opposed to him and that he is hated 
by every one? By no means; all the tests to 
which he is subjected are to give him power in 
himself according to the order of things as there 
established in the school. It is the test that 
proves the harmony between teacher and scholar 
and in like manner between Christian and the 
Christ. It was the test in the case of the soldier 
and of Daniel, that gave them power over man 
and events. 

It is by these trials, these tests, that Christians 
become known. By these we find the meaning of 
this life. What vast numbers of our fellow men 
may have noble natures, but are like the gold in 
the hillside or the diamond in the dust — undis- 
covered. When laden with care and tried with 
sorrow we seek for the whole truth ; for God who 
is the embodiment of that power. We then 
search to see if our names are written, high or 
low, or at all, in the register of God. Then we 
ask, are we on the human side known as living 
and active, while on the side toward God there is 
inscribed upon our walking bodies as upon mov- 
ing monuments, "An unknown man lies here?" 
Does it pay to live on half truth — on that which 
has to do alone with the time when a vast eternity 



Prayer and Providence 289 



spreads out before us with infinite relations and 
destinies ? God wants you to accept his Son who 
is the embodiment of this whole truth — for he 
says : " I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." 

Again the story of the soldier and that of 
Daniel reveal 

III. The victory. 

No such victory did Cornwallis ever win as was 
gained by this unnamed soldier. The battle was 
not fought upon the open field. It was away in 
those secret, silent moments when his soul 
wrestled with God as Jacob wrestled with the 
Angel. It is prayer that wins the battle of your 
life. This is nothing new. It is the same that we 
find away over in the experience of Daniel. The 
soldier was not only set free but promoted to a 
high position. Daniel not only escaped harm, 
but also became the ruler of the whole realm. 
Now ye doubters where is your vaunted conflict 
between prayer and providence? Come forth 
now and stand up before us and disprove this 
which happens every day before the eyes of every 
one. Can you do it? No? Then be silent ever 
after and listen to the endless testimony of those 
who come forth as witnesses for the harmony be- 
tween prayer and providence. 

There was the sickly mother, I can yet see her 
face, though she has long since closed her lips in 
the long silence. There she lay upon the sick bed 
year after year, with hardly enough strength to 



290 The Message of To-Morrow 



lift her wasting hands, and yet she held as by- 
iron chains that boy hundreds of miles away. 
He was kept in the most unusual way. He was 
protected from countless dangers. What seemed 
miracles almost, were performed by him, because 
she sent forth her prayers for him straight to the 
throne of God, like the homing pigeons, which 
go sure of their flight. Yes the world is moved 
and swayed and held largely by the praying 
mothers. Come with me into the homes I have 
visited, and into the scenes through which I have 
passed and I will prove to you that there is only 
harmony between true prayer and providences, as 
truly now as in the days of Daniel. 

Why, God intends that the world shall be man- 
aged by prayer, and He dares us to do it. There, 
see that Daniel! Get a good view of him and 
you will never forget his victory, which is only 
a specimen of those that may be achieved by us 
at every turn in life. One praying man or wo- 
man may turn aside the wrath of God from a 
whole town and a whole community. God would 
have spared Sodom at the request of Lot, if there 
had been found in that wicked city ten righteous 
people. 

In the Franco-German war the French hospital 
at Vendome was in charge of the late Madame 
Coralie Cahen, one of the noted nurses of the 
time. There, aided by two nurses and seven 
Christian sisters of mercy, she received thou- 
sands of French and German soldiers. 



Prayer and Providence 291 



When the Prussians occupied Vendome, they 
wished to hold the hospital and plant on it the 
German flag. But, warned of the enemy's inten- 
tions, Mme. Cahen, early one January morning, 
visited the Prussian general, who, surrounded by 
his staff, was about to seize the building. 

" Sir," she exclaimed, " we have received your 
wounded and nursed them as though they were 
our own. We will continue to do so, but we will 
remain a French hospital. We will not have it 
converted into a German hospital. " Her request 
was granted, and so she conquered a whole army. 
Why then may we not lead God to change his 
direction of working by putting ourselves in 
union with Him, so that we may accomplish great 
things at His command. Man is the wonder 
worker and God is his inspiration and power. 

There was, in a western city, a minister who 
was not a great preacher, or a great personal 
worker, and yet large numbers came into his 
church at every communion. Many years he 
laboured with the same result. He could not 
understand it himself, till one day he visited an 
old man of his church, who had been sick for over 
twenty years. Then the sick man told the minis- 
ter that he had spent most of his time praying for 
those whom he knew, that they might be brought 
to Christ, and then he produced the list of those 
he had been praying for, and it contained the 
name of nearly every one who had been brought 
to Christ through those fruitful years. Yes, true 



292 The Message of To-Morrow 

prayer and providence are in harmony as truly 
as are the earth and electricity. But there must 
be the working out through the man, of this great 
power. We must not foolishly pray for that 
which we can do of ourselves. Mr. Moody was 
once in a meeting in one of our western cities 
when a man rose in the audience and said he 
needed one hundred dollars to carry on some 
benevolent work, when Mr. Moody replied, " O, 
Mr. So and So, I would not bother the Lord 
with a small thing like that, I would just go out 
and get it." So there may seem at times to be 
a delay on the part of God to do what we our- 
selves should accomplish. God will never be 
moved by any prayer for the accomplishment of 
anything which we can do ourselves. If you had 
asked " Stonewall " Jackson when he lay dying 
what was the secret of his power, he would have 
answered with one word — prayer. To learn the 
secret of the endurance of Valley Forge and the 
war of the Revolution, you must find all those 
unmarked spots where Washington, his soldiers, 
and all the faithful wives and mothers knelt in 
prayer to God that He would save the cause. If 
you would find the secret of much failure, you 
must look to a lack of this communion with God, 
as when the disciples of Christ failed to cast out 
the evil spirit, they came to Him and asked, 
" Why could not we too cast him out ? " And 
Christ answered, " This kind goeth not out but 
by prayer and fasting." The same answer must 



Prayer and Providence 293 



be given to vast numbers to-day. You fail in 
school, in business, in speculation, because you 
have neither found the secret of power nor the 
power of this secret. Every true victory is 
fought single handed and in secret ; for this gives 
constancy. You may have faith, but this secret 
power — communion with God, — gives fulness, 
and you have power which never fails, and which 
promotes you as it promoted the English soldier, 
as it gave Daniel the power of the king, and led 
Paul to speak of the great harmony between 
prayer and Providence when he said : 

" Nay, in all these things we are more than 
conquerors through Him that loved us. For I 
am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." 



XXII 



THE EVER PRESENT CHRIST 

Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.— St. 
Luke 24: 15. 

These disciples were now turning from the 
darkest scene that had ever spread its blackness 
across the sky, to obscure the way of man; that 
is, the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. No 
glimmer of light seemed to come to them from 
anywhere. There was not even a star to peer 
over the edge of darkness to show that all was 
well beyond. It was as though an awful storm 
had swept the earth clean, and these two forlorn 
mortals were groping in the darkness in search 
of a spear of grass, a faded rose, or even a bent 
and broken tree, a straying animal or a mortal 
man. All things of worth were in the past to 
them, for they said : " We had hoped it had 
been He which should have redeemed Israel." 

But look; suddenly there came to them a 
glorious light. It shone straight from heaven, 
it gleamed by their side, it lighted the whole 
earth. It was Jesus Christ the Son of Righteous- 
ness. But they saw it not for their eyes were 
holden, blinded, bedimmed, by their doubt. They 
were as men in a dark and gloomy cave, who 
294 



The Ever Present Christ 295 

open their eyes and see nothing, and then say: 
"Why does not the day dawn?" Then some- 
one takes them by the hand and leads them out 
into the light, for the sun is shining in all his 
glory, and a world of wonder bursts upon the 
view. So when Christ led these disciples into 
the light they were entranced with the view of 
mortal life spread before them. 

So our eyes are opened and we are fascinated 
with the view of the 

I. Ever present Christ. 

There He was, and they knew it not. This has 
always been His method of coming to us. If man 
could create a flower, he would put a mark upon 
it which would say: "I made this." If man 
could create an oak he would write his name upon 
every leaf that all passers-by might know the 
author. 

But when God makes a flower He hides Him- 
self in the beauty of colour and sweetness of per- 
fume which delight the senses ; and says by the 
thorn to the man who would pluck it, " Have a 
care, how you use this." 

When God makes an oak, He stands by it 
throughout the years (for by His will alone it 
can live) and when the woodman comes to fell 
the tree, He is there in the strength of fibre, to 
say to the man who deals the sturdy blows, " Be- 
ware what you do with this." 

When God creates a human being, He follows 



296 The Message of To- Morrow 



fast and far after that life, in Jerusalem, in the 
temple, in the market place, anywhere to pro- 
tect and keep. Yes He follows even through the 
darkest trials, through the " valley and shadow," 
which lies at the outer border of this life to gild 
with the brightness of His glory, and to keep by 
the might of His power. All over the world this 
is true, " Jesus Himself drew near and went with 
them." And no wonder, for He heard them 
speak His name. Did you ever hear your name 
spoken in the great throng, or on the lonely high- 
way? Then you were all alertness. Did you 
come near and listen? Then you heard with at- 
tention. And you followed and learned what they 
said of you. Christ heard them speak of His 
prophetic history, of His birth, of His life, and 
of His death. Like a stranger He entered into 
conversation. As a mother sometimes quietly goes 
into the nursery and hears the children talk of 
her, so Christ Himself draws near and walks with 
each of us by day and night, in sunshine and in 
shadow, in heat and in cold. Unseen to us He 
goes with us through all the trials of life and 
places over every dark event and even over the 
grave, the never failing light of eternal life; for 
" Jesus Himself drew near and went with them." 
Yes, He is the ever present Christ, for He has 
said : " I will never leave thee nor forsake 
thee." 

We went far into the catacombs of Rome, 
away from the light, and out of the beaten paths. 



The Ever Present Christ 297 



We saw the strange inscriptions which only the 
taper revealed, and then we looked about for the 
guide, but could not see him. We began to fear 
that we were lost, but just at that instant the 
guide came up to us and we knew we were safe. 
So all through that dark journey the guide never 
left us for an instant. How often this has hap- 
pened to us in life's journey ! We have thought 
we were left alone, especially in the moments of 
our trials and bereavements ; when, behold, the 
great Guide of our lives stands forth and says: 
" It is I, be not afraid," " I will never leave thee, 
nor forsake thee." 

A Jewish legend tells how, when the three 
children were flung into the furnace, the Prince 
of Hail came to God and said, " Lord of the uni- 
verse, let me go and cool the furnace ; " but Ga- 
briel, the archangel, started up and said, " Nay, 
for all men know that hail quenches fire; but I, 
the Prince of Fire, will go down and make the 
flame cool within to save the boys, and hot with- 
out to slay the executioners, and will perform a 
miracle within a miracle ; " and the Holy One 
said, " Go down." And in the Song of the Three 
Holy Children in the Apochrypha we read how 
the angel of the Lord moved in the midst of the 
furnace as it had been a moist, whistling wind, 
so that the fire touched them not at all, nor hurt 
nor troubled them, for He beat back the fierce 
flames with His dewy wings. 

This is a beautiful story ; but it misses the truth 



298 The Message of To-Morrow 



somewhat, for the record in Daniel tells us that 
it was the Son of God who walked with the three 
Hebrews, as he walked in later day with the two 
on their way to Emmaus. So He walks with us 
all through the varied courses of life, and espe- 
cially does He come forth to manifest Himself in 
the fiery trials. 

A quiet and thoughtful boy once engaged to 
work for a man. He was specially proficient in 
all he did. His employer watched him carefully 
to see what was the secret of his proficiency. He 
noticed that the boy often turned over his coat 
lapel to gaze upon something; and on investiga- 
tion he found that the boy had there a picture 
of his mother, whose presence and power never 
left him. She was his inspiration and the power 
of his life. Far truer is it of us that He who will 
never leave us nor forsake us, has also said, 
" My grace is sufficient for thee." 

What a wonderful comfort to us all that Christ 
is always with us, guiding us by His wisdom, and 
keeping us in His love. How beautifully this is 
told in the twenty-third psalm, and the sixth 
verse. " Surely goodness and mercy shall follow 
me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in 
the house of the Lord for ever." Some one says, 
" A striking figure underlies these words ; a no- 
mad chieftain, in his desert encampment, sur- 
rounded by retainers ; a fugitive appealing for 
protection; the sheik welcoming him to his tent 
and feasting him while his baffled enemies look 



The Ever Present Christ 299 



on. Thus the psalmist finds an asylum in Jeho- 
vah's tent ; his pursuers drop off one by one until 
he sees about him only the friendly retainers of 
his Host. He cries, " Only Goodness and Mercy 
shall pursue me all the days of my life." The 
word " pursue " is generally used in the sense 
of hostile pursuit, but in this case the character 
of the pursuers disarms fear. Bedawin hospital- 
ity knew no stint within a three days' limit ; Jeho- 
vah's knows no limit; " And I will dwell in the 
house of Jehovah (i. e., I shall be his guest) 
forever." 

Every Christian for years has sung, and rightly 
too. 

" Nearer my God to Thee, 
Nearer to Thee/' 

And while we sing this grand old hymn, let us 
recall that, He is ever coming nearer to us in all 
events of life, for He is the ever present Christ. 

II. What Christ will do for us, if we listen 
to Him and invite Him in. 
Christ's mission is one of companionship. This 
goes beyond the mere sacrifice of His life. If it 
were not so He never would have appeared to the 
disciples on this journey. His presence is not 
that of idle curiosity; for He opens to us the 
Scriptures. O what a blessing, for one of the 
first elements of companionship is that of conver- 
sation, improvement, knowledge. O how puzzled 
we were at first with the Greek Grammar ! How 



3<x> The Message of To-Morrow 

strange the letters looked, and how formidable 
seemed the declensions of the nouns, and conju- 
gations of the verbs. We were utterly be- 
wildered, but that room-mate who had been 
through it all, how wisely he opened to us the 
knowledge that seemed to us so hidden! How 
we leaned on him, asking him all the things we 
did not understand. We could never have suc- 
ceeded without him. How strangely dark all 
things seemed to these two disciples, and how 
they needed the ever-present Christ to tell them 
the infinite truth of God. We can not succeed 
without Him. 

One day a pale-faced little girl walked hur- 
riedly into a book-store in Annasburg, and said 
to the man serving at the counter : 

" Please, sir, I want a book that's got ' Suffer 
little children to come unto me/ in it, and how 
much is it, sir? and I'm in a great hurry." 

The shopman bent down and dusted his spec- 
tacles. " And suppose I haven't the book you 
want, what then, my dear ? " 

" O, sir, I shall be so sorry ; I want it so ! " and 
the little voice trembled at there being a chance 
of disappointment. 

The kind shopman took the thin hand of his 
small customer in his own. " Will you be so very 
sad without the book; and why are you in such 
a hurry ? " 

" Well, sir, you see, I went to school one Sab- 
bath when Mrs. West, one who takes care of me, 



The Ever Present Christ 301 

was away; and teacher read about a Good Shep- 
herd who said those words, and about a beautiful 
place where He takes care of His children, and I 
want to go there. I'm so tired of being where 
there's nobody to care for a little girl like me, 
only Mrs. West, who says I'd be better dead than 
alive." 

" But why are you in such a hurry ? " 

" My cough's getting so bad now, sir, and I 
want to know all about Him before I die ; it 'u'd 
be so strange to see Him and not to know Him. 
Besides, if Mrs. West knew I was here she'd take 
away the six cents I've saved running messages 
to buy the book with, so I'm in a hurry to get 
served." 

The bookseller wiped his glasses very vigor- 
ously this time, and lifting a book from off the 
shelf, he said : I'll find the words you want, 
my little girl; come and listen." 

Then he heard the words of the loving Saviour 
(Luke xviii:i6), and told her how the Good 
Shepherd had got a home all light and rest and 
love prepared for those who love Him and serve 
Him. 

" O, how lovely ! " was the half-breathless ex- 
clamation of the eager little buyer. 

" And He says, ' Come.' I'll go to Him. How 
long do you think it may be, sir, before I see 
Him?" 

" Not long, perhaps," said the shopkeeper, turn- 
ing away his head. "You keep the six cents, 



302 The Message of To-Morrow 

and come here every day, while I read you more 
out of this book." 

Thanking him, the small child hurried away. 
To-morrow came, and another morrow, and many 
days passed, but the little girl never came to 
hear about Jesus again. One day a loud-voiced, 
untidy woman ran into the shop saying, " Dixey's 
dead ! She died rambling about some Good Shep- 
herd, and she said you was to have these six cents 
for the mission box at school. As I don't like to 
keep dead men's money, here it is," and she ran 
out of the shop. The six cents went into the box ; 
and when the story of Dixey was told, so many 
followed her example with their cents that at the 
end of the year " Dixey's cents," as they were 
called, were found to be sufficient to send out a 
missionary to China to bring stranger-sheep to 
the Good Shepherd. 

So Christ has come to be the teacher and guide 
of life, to open to us the Scriptures as well as to 
open before us all the possibilities of life. 

Charles James Fox, of England, had not the 
blessings of good home training ; but, this misfor- 
tune was in large measure remedied by his asso- 
ciation with the great Edmund Burke. He once 
said in public that if he were to put together into 
one scale all political information which he had 
gathered, all the knowledge he had gained from 
science, and all that he had learned in the affairs 
of the world, and into the other the benefit he had 
derived from his companionship with Mr. Burke, 



The Ever Present Christ 303 



he should be at a loss to which to give the prefer- 
ence. 

Was it not even better with the two who 
walked to Emmaus that day, and is it not better 
with all who will hear the divine voice? For 
however much wisdom and knowledge we have 
we will still need the personal power of Him who 
walked with the two disciples on the way to Em- 
maus. He alone can open to us the Scripture. 
Paul emphasizes this general truth when he says. 
" I count all things but loss for the excellency of 
Christ." 

Emerson once said that " our chief want in 
life is somebody who shall make us do what we 
can. This is the service of a friend. With him 
we are easily great. There is a sublime attrac- 
tion in him, to whatever virtue is in us. How he 
flings wide open the door of existence ! What 
questions we ask him. It is the only real society." 

There is only one thing lacking in these beau- 
tiful words of the great essayist, and that is the 
mention of Christ as this friend. For He is the 
friend who " sticketh closer than a brother." 

How beautiful is this divine companionship. 
It provides for every condition and against every 
need. It took care of these two discouraged dis- 
ciples, and can easily care for everyone. 

A little girl and her baby brother were 
playing on the track of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, in the Horseshoe Curve. Just as the en- 
gine of a long passenger train made the turn, the 



304 The Message of To-Morrow 

engineer saw the children. The shriek of the 
whistle startled the girl, and every eye looking 
over could see them. Close to the rail, in the 
upright rock was a little niche out of which a 
piece of rock had been blasted. In an instant the 
baby had been thrust into this niche; and as the 
cars came thundering by, the passengers, holding 
their breath, heard the clear voice of the little 
sister ring out : " Cling close to the rock, 
Johnny ! Cling close to the rock ! " 

And the little creature snuggled in and put his 
head as close to the rock as possible, while the 
heavy cars went by. 

" Cling close to the Rock," is the warning 
given to each one of us. Are we heeding it? 

Yes, He is our companion, to teach, and shield 
and guard and defend. 

III. But what were they doing for Him, for 

COMPANIONSHIP HAS TWO SIDES. 

They invited Him into their hearts and homes. 
He came as any ordinary traveller would come. 
He asked no favours, no note of introduction, no 
special privilege. He entered through the same 
door by which all other friends came. 

It was a habit of their life to invite a stranger 

in. 

There is no one who will enter your home 
without an invitation, unless he be a thief, and 
Christ will not break this rule for any human 



The Ever Present Christ 305 



being. He will not dishonour the will of any 
man, or burst open the barred door of any heart. 
He will rather make as though He would go fur- 
ther, or if not invited in He will go on His way. 
Therefore let us stand by the door and watch 
for His coming. Send out hope to meet Him 
upon the way to invite this King to enter the 
home of your soul. Send out joy to sing the 
triumphal march, as He comes in all His majesty 
and grandeur. Send love into the home to make 
ready for His coming. Send forth loyalty to cry 
out " Come in, O King and rule forever in my 
heart." 

" Saviour, Saviour, hear my humble cry, 
While on others Thou art calling, 
Do not pass me by." 

Shall we let the two weary travellers on the 
rough Judean hills outdo us ? Rather let us say, 

" Come in, O Thou blessed Christ of God." 

But when Christ is once in the heart and home, 
what then? Entertainment must be provided. 
They spread the feast for Him, but He soon 
showed that it was not His body, but His soul 
that was hungry, and nineteen hundred years 
have made no change in Him. 

It was a hungry God who walked those six 
miles and a half with those two disciples. He 
was hungry for their love, for their loyalty, for 
their lives. As soon as they knew Him, He had 



306 The Message of To-Morrow 

His immortal hold upon them. Hence, they went 
to Jerusalem or wherever He chose. 

Why did He go and sit over against the treas- 
ury in the Temple and watch those who put 
money in? Because He was a hungry God — 
needing the means of advancing His kingdom. 
He needed human hearts to help Him. He saw 
the woman with two mites and was pleased. 
Above all other things God hungers for the 
means by which His work may be carried on. 
Governments manage their affairs at great cost, 
and why should it be thought strange that God 
should be treated fairly, inasmuch as He is infin- 
itely more necessary to us than any government? 
God is too often made a beggar. 

It was a strange event in history that brought 
Henry IV. to the door of the Pope of Rome, 
where for three days he was denied admission, 
and where he had to do penance in the cold of 
winter until the Pope was pleased to admit him. 
A king, as a suppliant, waiting for days ! And 
yet the scene in many a life is the same, except 
that it is the King of Heaven, who waits and 
waits for us. 

The two disciples on the way to Emmaus, had 
the same King with them, and happy were they 
because they invited Him in to be their guest. 
And happy are all who thus honour Him, for He 
gives the everlasting joy of His constant pres- 
ence, purchased by His infinite love. 



The Ever Present Christ 



Love strong as death, nay stronger, 
Love mightier than the grave; 

Broad as the earth, and longer 
Than the ocean's widest wave; 

This is the love that sought us, 

This is the love that bought us, 

This is the love that brought us 

To the gladdest day from saddest night, 
From deepest shame to glory bright, 
From depths of death to life's fair height, 
From darkness to the joy of light. 



INDEX 



Adams, Gen., 264 
Age, 120 
Aguinaldo, 98 
Alps, 150 
Architect, 27, 69 
Atlanta, 155 

Baltimore, 258 
Bartimeus, 55 
Benevolence, 36 
Bible, 29, 63, 87, 108, ill, 

ii7, 119 
Blind, 53 
Brain, 197 
Bridge, 60 
Business, 158 

Cain, 118 

Calvary, 201 

Captives, 51 

Care, God's, 203, 204 

Catacombs, 53 

Certainty, 83 

Christ, 12, 13, 15, 20, 25, 34, 
46, 55, 57, 66, 76, 81, 120, 
148, 159, 160, 163, 165, 
183, 189, 251, 254, 262, 
263, 277, 294, 296, 305, 
307 



Christianity, 21, 23, 48, 83, 

150, 268, 288 
Choice, 91 

Church, 63, 64, 157, 182 
Columbus, Christopher, 156, 

173, 174 
Commerce, 41 
Conditions, 266, 267 
Conscience, 29, 30, 73 
Conversion, 176 
Cranmer, 276 
Creed, 83 
Cuba, 97 

Daniel, 31, 121, 281, 282, 

289, 290, 296, 298 
Darius, 31 
Discovery, 21, 45 
Doubters, 289 

Eden, 124, 188, 196 
Eiffel Tower, 111 
Elijah, 205 

Emancipation Proclama- 
tion, 264 

Eternity, 112, 113 

Everlasting life, 112, 113, 
114, 117, 119, 250 



Index 



Father, 211, 212 
Future, 117, 124 

Garrison, W. L., 200 

Gideon, 34 

Gladstone, 171 

God, 52, 60, 63, 64, 65, 70, 

77, 88, 89, 90, 103, 123. 

128, 129, 177, 205, 206, 

295 

Gospel, 70, 71, 78, 81, 83, 84, 
138, 140, 141, 142, 143, 
148 

Holy Spirit, 34, 41 

Immortality, 119, 147 
Infidelity, 29, 143 

Judgment, 109, no, 195 
Justice, 93, 94, 95 
Justly, 193, 195 

Kaiser, 147, 148 
King, 131, 147 

Lee, Gen. R. E., 70 

Le Verrier, 62, 63 

Life, 14, 19, 77, 80, 83, 87. 
89, 90, 102, 104, 105, 106, 
115, 123, 152, 161, 168, 
171, 253, 256 

Lincoln, Abraham, 199 

Man, 24, 25, 26, 54, 67 
Menelik, 259 



Manila, 98, 204 
Menyana, 13 

Mercy, 95, 96, 98, 99, 196, 
197 

Milton, 54, 178 
Mirror, 108, 283 
Missions, 34, 69 
Moody, D. L., 189, 292 
Moses, 22, 170 
Mother, 137, 178, 183, 186, 
298 

Napoleon, 151, 152 
Nathanael, 12, 14, 16, 21, 

22, 24, 26 
Neptune, 62, 63 
Niagara, 136, 172, 273 
Nicodemus, 51, 138, 139, 

145, 146, 147, 149 

Oneness, 42, 43 

Parthenon, 26 

Paul, 52, 56, 63, 77. 115, 

124, 126, 143, 189 
Peace, 126, 130, 131, 132 
Pentecost, 39 
Phidias, 26, 27 
Philadelphia, 29, 271 
Pleiad, n, 12, 20, 23 
Power, 35, 40, 41, 72, 82, 

113, H4 
Prayer, 279, 280, 284, 290 

Ransom, 252, 260, 261 
Revelation, 18, 20 



Index 



311 



Sacrifice, 58, 257, 258 Victoria, 162, 201 

Salvation, 76, 77, 79, 92 Virginia, 11, 69 
Science, 21 

Shaw, Judge, 93 Year, 56, 57, 59 

Sin, 75, 154 Youth, 100, 103, no 



NOT 29 10O2 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proces 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

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